Power Rangers: Steam Force
by Stormasius
Summary: A threat has emerged that aims to destroy the industrial age city of Vicdon. A giant hive of insects emerged, destroying the cities defences and it's greatest weapon in the process. Now a team of rangers, powered by steam, must put aside their differences to save their city.
1. Prologue: Steam Protocol

Power Rangers: Steam Force

Prologue: Steam Protocol

The great city of Vicdon, it has existed for over a century as a testament to time and a monument to the industrial era. Over the many years since its founding it has stayed the same. The industrial revolution may be over everywhere else, but here it still stands strong. The entire city runs on steam power and the use of gears, along with many other industrial machines. Each district is connected by steam trains and is governed by an overseer. The seventh district is operated by a man known only as the governor and he has primary control over everything else in the city. The city looks like a spiraling honeycomb. The first district being the lowest and inhabited by the workers. The structure raised every district till it reached the seventh district in the center that was inhabited by the most elite of the city. To this avail, the city is like a hive, the workers on the bottom, the elite on the top. It is best to begin in the first dis-

An aged man with long, white, slicked back hair and a white beard was interrupted in the middle of writing a book that contained all of the information given by a knock at his door. He sighed as he approached his double door that separated his study from the hallway. Opening it, there way a royal soldier stood to attention. He wore a militaristic suit with a light blue sash along his body. The soldier looked almost juvenile and had a distressed look on his face.

"General, sir. I'm sorry to bother you but we have a problem." The worry on his face grew with each passing moment. "Sorry soldier, I'm retired, you don't need an old war veteran like me." he turned away and was ready to close the door. "General Lohan, please, we need you. Only you know how to handle the matter. The governor told me to come to you, said that you'd know what to do." The general paused for a moment. "Let us go then. Retirement was getting boring anyway." They both ran out of the room to see to the urgent matter that had arisen.

Reaching the military district and driving through on a steam powered military truck, they entered the operations station. Soldiers and scientists were operating several monitoring machines as two large cogs at each end of the room span slowly. In the center was a command console operated by a man with an officer uniform on. "General, welcome back." The officer told him. "Let's skip the pleasantries Aham, what's the situation?" He replied. "First of all it's Captain now. Second, look at the hologram." He paused as a holographic field emitted from the console.

Holographic images of what appeared to be a titanic insect hive appeared. "We tried a frontal assault on the hive. What happened in the next few minutes was the worst thing I've ever seen." Captain Aham pressed a button to switch the hologram. It flicked to a 3D image of a battle between heavily armoured soldiers and many forms of mutated insectoids. Another flicker and the hologram changed again. "They wiped all of our soldiers out" Gory images were shown of troops ripped apart by the serrated claws of the monsters. "We're defenceless. We need project failsafe, now." He finished his sentence and turned to the general. "I'll open the vault. You'll have to supply a subject." Lohan said in reply.

He and the captain stood in front of a now unsealed vault. "The clockwork morpher, Likely the only good thing to come from the steamworks project. So who will take it?" He stood holding the morpher before him. "You know me general, I was a part of project steamwork. I can handle the power." He held his hand out to receive the morpher. To his surprise the general placed it upon Aham's arm instead of just giving it to him. Before he could ask why, the general simply said. "If anything happens to you, I wanna be the cause, I'd regret it if I didn't give it to you myself. Still remember the morphing sequence?" In response he held out his arm, with the morpher facing away from him. "Of course. Clockwork Power!" He shouted it out loud and span the primary gear that stuck out of the side of the morpher. He morphed into a suit with bronze as the primary colour and had grey strips on the outside. The chest had the insignia of a gear on it. His boots were bronze with a darker grey trimming, as were the gloves. His visor was in the shape of a V, it had similarity to the hands of a watch, the front also included a mouth guard. On the back of the helmet was a small gear. "I'll stop these oversized bugs, even if that means I wont come back.

The clockwork ranger ventured through the battlefield between the city and the hive, finally, he reached it's entrance. Pulling out his clockwork blaster, he entered the nest. Hibernating monstrosities covered the wall. He knew it was futile to battle such numbers and to defeat their leader would be the only way to end the threat. After traversing the corridors of the hive for over an hour, he finally came to the core of the hive. A brute of a creature stood in the center of the room. With caution, he approached the brute. "Creature, I am the guardian of vicdon. You shall be destroyed for threatening us!" He shouted at the behemoth. "I am Primarch, You were warned not to attack again, now you'll die." The beast reared up ready to attack.

Aham Fired a few shots from his blaster before rolling out of the way. He repeated this before rolling behind the monster and jumping onto it's back. He managed to get a few shots and managed to stomp on it's face before being knocked off. Primarch grabbed hold of him and threw him into the hive's wall. 'Looks like there's only one way to beat this guy' he thought as he holstered his blaster and calibrated his morpher. He ran up to the titan, his fist began to surge with energy. With one swift hit, the monster collapsed to the floor and almost instantaneously turned to dust and dispersed. Aham gave a sigh of relief before he heard the cruel laugh of a woman's voice.

Walking towards him was a woman, she displayed skeletal characteristics and had horns sprouting out of her head. Her red hair flowed down her back. She had luminous purple eyes and her skin had a lifeless tone to it. She wore what appeared to be a dress constructed out of the body parts of giant insects. "You defeated my brute, well done." The woman said with an aristocratic tone. "I'll find another don't you worry. Then I'll destroy your pitiful city." Aham un holstered his blaster and aimed it at her. "Who are you?" he asked. "I am Queen Nyllia of the Terrasoids, bow mortal." "Never!" He shouted in reply. "Then pay for your defiance!" She gestured with her hands and a swarm of insects assaulted Aham from either side. When the swarm settled, his arms were held and he was brought to his knees, he was now defenceless. Nyllia walked up to him. ripped off his morpher as he powered down. "You'll not need this in death ranger. It's a pity, I was looking for another reliable servant. Guess I'll settle for your heart!" With a quick blow, her clawed fingers seared through his chest. He winced in pain as he dropped to the ground and the life drained from his body. "Dispose of the weakling, and place that morpher in my vault." She commanded her minions, walking away.

"Aham...Aham! Damn it." Lohan lowered his head in mourning for his fallen friend. The royal soldier approached him again. "Sir, what do we do now" he asked with a sad expression. "We engage steam protocol, Find an outstanding citizen from each district. Bring them here. I'll have the rest ready when they arrive. dismissed." The soldier stood to attention before leaving. The clockwork morpher was lost and there was only one hope to save vicdon, the steam rangers. the time had come…

 **That was the steam force prologue. The city itself is powered by steam and clockwork mechanisms and puts a large emphasis on that technology but incorporates modern technology too. Now onto rangers. It's time for you to fill out this sheet with your character's details (If you want to) I will pick six of the character applications for the season.**

Name:

Age:

Ranger Colour: (choose from) Red, Blue, Green, Yellow, White, Black

Physical appearance:

District: (choose from) Work, Education, Market, Port, Military, Upper class

Personality:

Background (optional):

 **Most of it should be self explanatory. As for the season, It will be taking a darker approach than usual. I look forward to reading these and I'll write up the next one when all the positions have been filled. After that, the series will be uploaded on a bi-weekly basis as Mythos, my other series, takes priority.**


	2. Update

Stormasius here giving you an update on steam force. I have chosen the six initial rangers. I'll put the names and colours of each ranger below. I have chosen these based on a few criteria that come into play with the story. If your character wasn't picked for this team then don't worry. Steam force is going to be full of characters and rangers. These six are the core team and there is always the possibility of a member being replaced because of the outcome of a chapter.

Other things I wanted to cover are the villains. If you have a good Idea for an insect based villain, just give me a pm or put it into the review. I believe I made only one alteration to better fit a character, but it was all open to interpretation as there was little info on that one. Once again I shall use all characters at some point so feel free to send more in if you want but that'd best be done in a pm. So without further ado these are the first six steam force rangers.

Red: Lloyd Moon

Blue: TJ Anderson

Green: Lucas Shinamero

Yellow: Anaya Towers

White: Alex Rhodes

Black: Mia Jessica Watanabe

I had to go through many different applications and these looked to be the best fit for the story I want to portray. Other characters may take up the mantel of ranger and some rangers could be replaced. Of course I will also be using other characters to portray other roles too. It was difficult with the criteria I wanted, so I believe this gives me more creative freedom. Now I have chosen, I can begin writing up the next chapter. And check out my other fan series Mythos if you haven't already, as that's getting into full swing as I write the next chapter. Stormasius is signing off now and I think I'm gonna go to sleep now. Full steam ahead with this project from tomorrow, bye.


	3. Divided as One: Part 1

Power Rangers: Steam Force

Ch 1: Divided as one: part 1

Queen Nyllia sat on her organic throne as hundreds of pods began to hatch many new Terrasoids. It had been a few days since the awakening and killing the invader of her home. She reminisced the moments and ran them through her head. As she finished, the last of her minions hatched. "Rise my children. You are my warriors, you shall end the pitiful existence of the human city above and then we shall reclaim the earth as our home!" She preached to her newly hatched drones.

As she finished, two experienced Terrasoids approached her. The first humanoid had similarities with a beetle, the primary features being the pincers on his back and had a small immobile head with beady black eyes. The second had more in common with a wasp than any other insect. He was slimmer and bore the stinger appendage on his behind. Antennas sprouted from the top of his head and he had large insectoid eyes. He had large wings that laid at either side of his body and had two slim arms with hands built for grip.

She stood up off of her throne and walked down the fleshy steps towards the two commanders. "Ah, Galvan and Stinger, how are my most trusted lieutenants doing today." She asked them. "My queen, we must not stop attacking these humans. Each second we waste means that they could mount an attack against us. Allow me to take some of these newly hatched drones and wreak havoc on their city." Galvan told her. She pondered it for a second. "Yes, prepare my children for battle then take them to the city. And remember, leave no survivors." Nyllia ordered as she turned to her throne again. Although she was enjoying this new freedom, she felt as if something was missing from it.

Back at the operations station, the reinstated General Lohan was reviewing documents and thinking about yesterday, regretting his decision. He heard the voice of the soldier as he entered with six teens, all around the same age. "These are the people you picked soldier?" Lohan asked. "Yes sir, if that is all. I need to return to my post." He replied. "Dismissed soldier." Lohan ordered, giving a salute before the young man left the room. "You six have been chosen to come here for an important mission. Before I can continue, I need to know a bit more about you all. When I ask you, I need your name and profession, if you have one that is." He told them.

"You, Red!" he ordered as he stood in front of a boy in red. In front of him stood a tall eighteen year old, he was around 6'2, his hair was combed back, black with red streaks running through it. He was muscular with light skin and had brown eyes. He wore a red hoodie, torn jeans and a pair of black converse shoes. "The name's Lloyd Moon. I don't have a job, but I have combat experience." Lloyd told him. "Moon. I know you, the scientists kid." Lohan replied. "We'll talk about that later." He finished.

Next, he walked over to another teen. He seemed slightly older than Lloyd by a year or two. He had blonde hair with a blue streak on the edge. His eyes were blue, skin white and he was tall and muscular. Freckles were dotted around his face. He wore a black t-shirt underneath a blue and black flannel. He wore blue jeans along with black converse. "TJ sir, I don't have a job either." The teen told him. "Is that supposed to stand for something?" He said with an interrogative tone. "It does but...I really don't feel like sharing it right now." TJ sighed. "Right. Moving on!" The general announced.

He walked up the line and stood facing the next civilians picked out. He seemed to be younger than the last two by a couple of years. He had pale white skin, some muscle tone and he had a lanky build. He seemed tall for his age, he had short black hair and brown eyes. He wore a dark green hoodie, lightly coloured denim jeans and orange sneakers. Lohan ordered him to speak after examining the teen himself. "Lucas Shinamero. I work at the guns store and run deliveries between the factory and the store." He informed the gritty man staring at him. 'Someone who has experience with firearms, might come in handy.' He thought to himself.

Next he moved down the line to the next candidate. This time a young woman stood waiting. She had light brown skin even across her body, with this, her eyes had a rich colour of bright brown. Her body looked quite athletic and well toned. Her hair was a rich black in a single braid, which reached the small of her back. In comparison to the others she seemed short at 5"'8", although that's more likely due to their size than hers. She wore a yellow t-shirt over a white long sleeved top with yellow racing stripes running down each arm. Her pants were grimy and full of dirt and worn areas. Here and there they still contained hints of white, the colour it used to be, but most everything else was tattered and stained. They covered her ankles, which hides the feature of black boots with yellow stripes running along them. "You got a name?" General Lohan asked her. "Ayana Towers. I work in the ports." She told him as she stood stiffly.

With a nod, he turned and moved to the next one. She shared a few similarities with the last girl. Being the same height and having more or less the same skin tone. Her hair was kept in a braid and it was a vivid mixture of brown and blonde hair. Her eyes were a bright green. She has a slight muscular tone but has a similar build to that of a gymnast. She wore a white, sleeveless, low cut tank top. Had blue jean shorts and white sneakers. Wrapped around her waist was a tool belt. As he turned she began to speak. "It's Alex Rhodes. I work with the generators and trains, and just about anything else powered by steam." Once again, in reply he nodded his head before moving on.

Finally he stood before the last of them. She had raven jet black hair and chocolate brown eyes. She dwarfed most of them at 6'5" and had pale brown skin. She had a dragon tattoo on her upper back and had a scar that ran from her eye to her cheekbone and wore a plain pair of glasses. She had a black prep school uniform on and looked like she just got out of class. "You, what's your name?" The general said with a stern expression. "Mia, I live and work in the school district, at one of the cafés, in the back." She said shyly, being hesitant with every other word.

He walked back up to the command console and pressed a button. "Now that introductions are over. I will introduce you to Steam Protocol, the precursor to failsafe. I doubt any of you know what that means so allow me to show you. Mind your feet." He informed them as he pressed another button and a secret panel, known only to him till now, slid open and revealed a pedestal that rose up. After it finished its elevation, it opened up from the top to reveal six objects.

At the bottom, it seemed to lock to the wrist, the primary section was attached to this, it was a rectangular wrist attachment. On the top of the object was a dial pad, there was another component to each of them. A horizontal lever attached to a metal component at either side that went into two gaps on the edges of the object. Each one consisted of a primary silver colour and a secondary colour of either: red, blue, green, yellow, white or black. The secondary colour was lined on the sides of the morpher and underneath the dial pad. Despite the complexity, it was still only the size of the average person's hand and fit snugly on the wrist along with the attachment. "These are the steam morphers. Not the most creative name but we didn't really get the time to call them something cool." Lohan joked. "Each of you take one, with it you will transform into a steam force power ranger. You'll have power like you've never experienced. Yet once you take the mantel, you'll have sworn an oath to keep Vicodin safe. Take them with you. Ponder it. If you don't wish to participate, bring it back. We can find other to fight the terrasoids." He told them. He turned around to his console again. "I hope you make the right choice" He told them, not looking away from the console. Each teen took a morpher and departed to their districts to ponder the situation.

Walking through the ghetto area of the ports, Ayana sighed as she hid the morpher in her pocket and went through the situation one last time in her head. Eventually arriving at a small, wrecked and almost abandoned looking house by the docks. Opening the door, she walked in. The house was cramped and run down. A couple of her younger siblings sat on the cold floor playing with a set of worn cards. Her eldest sibling laid on the chair, his leg in a cast. He appeared to be passed out. Leaving them to her peace, she climbed up the stairs into a small room with a couple of beds in it. Sitting down on the bed, Ayana sat down and pulled out the morpher. She began studying it closely. 'It's a big decision, If I do this, who's gonna take care of my family. I can't leave them, if I do this I need reassurance that they'll get help.' She thought to herself. Hearing footsteps, she hid the morpher back in the bag. A girl slightly younger than her sat down beside her. "Sis. We have a problem, I lost my job today. I'm sorry but you have to get overtime, we can't survive without it." Her sister told her. "I see. I'm sorry about this but I've gotta go somewhere. It might not work but... I'm gonna try." Ayana told her. With that, she picked up her bag and ran out of the house as quick as she could to return to the general.

She came to a halt after sprinting back. She gave a pant as she approached the general. "Ayana. How unexpected. Have you made up your mind?" He asked her. "I have on condition first. I don't wanna leave my family worse off than they already are. We're in poverty as it is. If I agree to become a ranger, my family gets all the support they need. They never go hungry and never have the risk of eviction. Otherwise, I have to refuse." Ayana demanded. "I see, without you, the family falls apart. I understand your plight from personal experience. I promise that I'll do anything I can. So, With you, we only need the other five." He agreed.

TJ sat in a comfortable chair looking at the morpher on the table, Imagining the futures possible. "Me become a power ranger. It's a big decision. I've been stuck as a rebel without a cause just tryna get away from everyone's expectations of me. They don't get it, I don't want to take over as the head of the family. I want to be more than the result of tradition. I try to make my own life but I never get anywhere with it. Maybe being a ranger will give me the freedom to make a difference. If it does, I want to be a part of it." TJ said aloud in an empty room. A couple of moments later, a butler entered the room. "Master Theodore, you called for me?" the servant asked. "Yeah...I'm gonna slip out. I was gonna go cause mayhem as usual but, I have something better planned now. Don't rat me out." TJ asked him. The butler gave a not before TJ left through the servants entrance to the room.

Alex was fixing up some components in a workshop. A large brute of a man in overalls came up to her. "Alex, you look upset. Earlier when you told the boys you'd be leaving you choked up, now you're fixing up an old radio. I know you don't want to leave. Griffin appreciates you upholding his memory but it's time you did something more with your life. It's still early, if you hurry, you could accept the offer. Keep Griffin's name alive in your own way. Fly from the nest little bird and find your own place. I'll keep the flock safe." He told her. A tear rolled down her cheek as he finished. "Alright Hawk, you've always looked out for me, just like a big brother. I'm gonna miss you." She told Hawk. With that she got up and hugged the mechanic. "You too little one." Hawk said to alex as he hugged back. After a minute, they parted and she picked up her things to leave.

Last to arrive, Alex saw the other five from earlier in a line. "Ah, the last to arrive. Your answer?" Lohan asked as she got in line. "I'll join up. I need to make my own way in life." She answered. "The answer several gave. Interesting." He mumbled. "I gave you the morphers. Now I'll give you the morphing phrase. You need to hold out your arm, initiate the code 1-9-4-2 and then push the horizontal lever forwards. As you push it yell 'Full Steam Ahead' and you'll morph. now you know this. we should get to training, follow me." Lohan informed them.

Heading down a ramp, the rangers saw a training center combined with a hangout space. An assault course dominated the room, several punching bags dotted about as well as other fitness objects. In the rec area, there were a couple of book shelves, a large tv and several comfortable seats and beanbags surrounding it. "Let's get you ready to face a Terrasoid, maybe you'll have a chance then." He told them in a commanding tone. Each ranger took up position at the exercise equipment ready to use it. Lloyd and TJ took up position at the assault course start point. "Bet you can't beat me kid." TJ taunted. "I ain't no kid, just watch me run circles round you!" Lloyd retorted. They both ran as the light at the start point turned green and headed up to the first obstacle.

In the market district, Galvan terrorised citizens as he set drones upon them. Each drone was based on the humanoid version of a fly. Large heads with red eyes, thin wings and bug like hands. "Go my drones, make them fear us!" Galvan shouted, clicking his back mounted pincers as they obeyed him.

Back at the Operations station an alarm went off, cutting their training time. "Rangers, we've got trouble in the market district. Get over there and stop the attack. good luck." Lohan ordered. After getting their things, each of them ran out.

Arriving at the scene, the six of them stood facing the bugs. "These things are ugly." Lucas remarked. "Tell me about it." Ayana agreed. "Drones, dispatch these humans!" Galvan ordered. The six of them got into a fight stance as the drones charged towards them.

Lucas, TJ and Lloyd charged back. Ayana landed a roundhouse kick to one that was about to reach her. Alex and Mia tag teamed one, Alex hit it in the head whilst Mia kneed it in the stomach. Lloyd charged one into the ground and hit it repeatedly with his fists. TJ shoved one into two others and suckerpunched anotherbefore flipping over it. Lucas elbowed one coming up behind Lloyd. The rangers quickly finished off the others and lined up.

"Ha, you think you can beat me like you did my drones? I am Galvan, beetle commander!" The Terrasoid announced. He leant over, clicked his pincers and sent a blast of beetles at the rangers. going on their knees, they knew they needed more power. "Okay everyone, he's tougher than the rest. I don't think we're gonna beat him by ourselves. if everyone's in agreement. It's morphing time!" Lloyd told the others.

Each ranger held out their right arm. Pressed the code into the keypad. 1-9-4-2. They grasped hold of the handle and shouted together. "FULL STEAM AHEAD!" They pushed it forward and each was engulfed by a bright white light.

[Steam Force]

 **That's part 1 of the first chapter. I'll take the time to answer some questions here. You are correct in thinking that characters have a chance to become a ranger even if they weren't picked right away. I am in the process of making a list for extra rangers following similar guidelines as the first list. And I'm making a monster application list that should come out in the next chapter.**

 **This part was to just show off the characters and give a little bit of depth to some of them. Not everyone's decision was shown. That was just down to how I wanted the chapter to progress.**

 **The morphing call was shown at the end and the morphing sequence and roll call will be shown at the beginning of the next chapter to pick up where this one left off. as for next time…**

 **Next Chapter: Divided as One: Part 2**

 **Synopsis: The rangers morph and battle Galvan. Queen Nyllia gathers strength in an new arrival. Will the rangers fight galvan once or twice if he gets bigger. Find out how their first battle turns out, and what happens in the aftermath next time on Power Rangers: Steam Force.**


	4. Divided as one: Part 2

Power Rangers: Steam Force

Ch 1: Divided as one: part 2

A bright light surrounded the six rangers as they began to morph.

 **[morphing sequence]**

Each ranger found themselves going through a tunnel with train tracks under their feet. The white suit was replaced by a colour coded version. A rail like silver belt appeared around their waist that was connected with a buckle that resembled a train platform. White gloves with silver cuffs appeared on their hands. Coloured boots with white cuffs formed on their feet. A barred furnace hatch appeared on the chest of each ranger. Silver cow catcher style pauldrons formed on their shoulders before tracks formed across their eyes and energy surrounded the rest of their head. It solidified, forming a helmet with a rail inspired visor, a grey number on the left side of the helmet ranging from one to six. On the back of the helmet, there was a steam valve. Each morphed ranger stopped in the tunnel as the morphing sequence completed.

 **[morphing sequence]**

The bright light was replaced by a cloud of steam that dispersed as the fully morphed rangers stood ready to fight.

"Red hot just like an engine, steam force red!"

"Cold and refreshing, water in the tank, steam force blue!"

"The glorious green of a carriage, steam force green!"

"Putting on the golden touch, steam force yellow!"

"Powering ahead with industrial fuel, steam force black!"

"Pure colour, rising high to the sky, steam force white!"

"Power Rangers! Steam Force!" They all shouted out, taking various poses as an explosion occurred behind them, followed by several plumes of steam that correlated with their ranger colour. "Rangers? Ha, It will only be a simple matter. We defeated the last one easily. Bring it spandex squad!" Galvan taunted.

Lloyd ran in and slugged Galvan in the head before letting the black and green rangers kick him back. TJ provided a jump boost to Alex who performed a spiralling kick as she descended. Ayana missed Galvan's head with a powerful swing but struck his pincer and wounded him. "Rangers, this it Lohan. You have him on the retreat. I'm still working on the program to make it more functional but it'll be fine for now. Enter the code 1-0-1 to activate the pipe blades. When you've worn him down, enter the code 0-3-4 good luck. Lohan out." The general informed him.

"Everyone ready?" Lloyd asked. Giving nods, each entered the code into their morpher.

1-0-1 - shipping ... pipe blade ... arriving

Steam formed in each ranger's hand, quickly dispersing and revealing a long pipe that looked like a sword with a crossbar. "Cool toys." Alex commented. "You're right there, looks like it's time to hit something." Lucas joked. Each ranger took up an offensive stance as they brandished their new toys.

The Rangers pelted Galvan as he attempted to block their attacks. Eventually, he was able to grasp hold of Mia's blade and throw her into the others. "Damn it this guy is tough." She groaned as she got back up. TJ and Lucas were still holding him off. Until he blasted his beetles at them. Regrouping, the rangers stood in a line. "We've gotta use the other weapon if we want to stop this." They all shouted. Since they were in agreement, they all shared a smirk under their helmets.

0-3-4 ... shipping ... rail cannon ... arriving

A large cannon appeared in front of the group. Looking like a rail gun attached to a push action railway cart. The red and white rangers held the front, blue and green at the bolt action trigger, and the black and yellow rangers at the loading end.

"Loading compression shell." Mia and Ayana called.

"Aiming rail cannon!" Lloyd and Alex told them.

"Locked and loaded. Ready when you are TJ." Lucas said from his side.

"Firing rail cannon!" TJ announced as he and Lucas pulled back the bolt trigger.

With a powering up sound, the rail gun came alive as it shot multicoloured beams of light at the Terrasoid. The light turned into a red steam engine, tugging along several other carts that were the same colour as the ranger's suits. With a scream, Galvan exploded and was vaporised. As the blast died down, spores hit the ground where he once stood.

With a thunderclap, the spores recreated Galvan, but this time he was a towering giant. "I'm back rangers, and I'm bigger than ever!" His voice boomed. He shot a beam of beetles at the rangers as they dived out of the way. "Lohan we need help. Preferably something big enough to take on an at least 50ft monster." Lloyd called in. "Gotchya, I'm readying the depot now. The rail riders should be on their way any second now." He replied.

 **[steam force]**

In an abandoned train yard on the outskirts of Vicdon. Bright lights turned on and a large storage door opened with a rusty screech. Five others like it opened. A rail turntable rose from the ground and turned onto each door to release each zord. After travelling on the tracks, steam jets made them rise into the sky as they travelled to the rangers. The red rail rider was an old time express train chugging along at the front. The white was a monorail with its carts, the blue was a high speed train which was similar to the monorail. The green rider was a tram and the yellow was a rail bus. The final rider was a black passenger train.

"Let's get to work." Lloyd said to himself. Each ranger jumped into their zords as they passed over.

"Red express rider engaged!"

"White mono rider engaged!"

"Blue speed rider engaged!"

"Green tram rider engaged!"

"Yellow bus rider engaged!"

"Black passenger rider engaged!"

"Coupling zords! Steam Titan Megazord engage!"

Each ranger pulled down a lever in their zord. The mono rider and speed rider's back half folded to the back then attached to the other carts and the control cars flipped up to create legs. The express rider split in two, putting the back end vertically up and placing it on top to the front part. It then connected to the other two riders. Next, the passenger rider split down the middle and folded to create shoulders which attached and then dropped down the upper arm when connected. The tram and bus split in half but had a metal beam keeping them loose but attached. The attached to the upper arm to create the full arm and the fists. Finally a head emerged from the central rider. It had a rail mouth guard, shining green eyes, and had a metal conductors hat with steampunk goggles on top of the hat.

"Steam Titan Megazord ready!"

Galvan sized up the robot standing before him. "It doesn't matter what you rangers throw at me, you'll never stop my mistress!" He said with confidence. "We'll see about that you oversized beetle!" TJ taunted. "Let's get him" Ayana enthused. The others gave a nod.

TJ pressed some controls. "High speed train arriving at your gut" He joked as the Megazord kicked Galvan in the stomach, knocking him back. "Cheap shot ranger. Feel my beetle blast!" He fired his beam, only for it to be blocked by the two arms. This gave him time to pick the Megazord up and throw it. Getting back up the Megazord hit its fists together. "I think it's about time we crushed this insect." Lucas told the others. Giving a nod the Rangers hit the controls and made the Megazord hit the giant in the head a few times. He was severely injured. "Let's wrap this up."

"Max speed! Collision strike!"

The Megazord ran at blur speed holding its fists out, it levelled out horizontal and was propelled by jets of steam. It hit the Terrasoid straight in the middle of the chest and caused an explosion. The Megazord turned away as Galvan was vaporised. He yelled his last words before disintegrating "This isn't happening!" The rangers cheered "rangers, looks like we squashed a bug." Lloyd announced triumphantly as the others cheered.

 **[steam force]**

Stinger burst through a door into the chamber. He let out an annoyed buzz before bowing to the queen. "My queen, Galvan has been destroyed by six warriors similar to the one you slew. What are your orders?" She looked at him for a moment. "Nothing. Let them have their victory today. I shall hatch a new Terrasoid to deal with them soon enough. Now leave!" She snapped. He ran out of the room in fear of her.

Once the room was empty, she forced an organic cradle to rise from the ground. "No matter how many of them they defeat. They will be nothing compared to you my child. I have made you to bring them down. When you grow up, you will be ready. My little Kivo, destroyer of mankind." She gave a dark smile as she played with the hand of an infant. Although a newborn, he seemed to be at least a year old. A yellow glow surrounded the eye of the child as he played with his mother.

 **|Steam Force|**

 **That was steam force part 2 of chapter 1. Meaning chapter 2 is coming up next. This was primarily a fight chapter with a reveal of a 'bad guy' he's gonna be a really interesting character in how he is incorporated into the story. This was a planned event from the beginning and he's gonna be involved in a lot of the story. For now though, my main focus is the conflict between rangers, mainly Ayana and about half of the team since she hates the upper class.**

 **Quick mention. I started martial strike and have an OC contest for that, but it's mostly black rangers. Similar to what happened here with the OC's it's not a bad thing, but I'm mentioning here to just say it'll be easier for your character to be picked if they weren't a black ranger as there's only one submission for a different colour. Don't be discouraged from doing a black ranger, just make it as best you can if you do. Anyone who already submitted can resubmit if they want but they don't have to. Anyway, this wasn't really that quick, and I've been Stormasius, see you next time in whichever story I'm writing for next.**

 **Next chapter: chapter 2: a conflict of interest**

 **Synopsis: For some life is hard. Others not so hard. When TJ admits to being the heir to a rich family, how will some react because of his upbringing, will they sort it out or will it fall into anarchy. With the problem at hand, can they even defeat the latest Terrasoid attack? Find out next time on Power Rangers: Steam Force.**


	5. A conflict of interest

Power Rangers: Steam Force

Ch2: A conflict of interest

Queen Nyllia sat on her organic throne, eying the champion in front of her. "So, tell me why you think that this champion can defeat these rangers, stinger?" She asked her wasp like commander. " My queen, he is the bulkiest warrior we have. His armour is too thick for any previous warrior to break through with any sort of blade. Surely he will be the champion to crush them my queen." Stinger told her confidently. "Get him out there then." She replied, almost without care. Stinger gave a bow before turning to a black bipedal ant. "Armant! Go and destroy the city nearby!" The monster nodded before leaving the nest.

Later, the queen returned to her child Kivo, the Terrasoid that looked human. This time, instead of being a newborn as it is expected from any animal. After a few days of life, he looked as if he was at least 1 maybe even 2 years old. "Good little Kivo, my little boy is going to be so strong. Soon enough you'll be ready, so much stronger than any of these weak warriors. Now come to mommy." She told the child as she picked him up. He let out a gurgle and his eyes lit up yellow once more.

[steam force]

Back at the operations station, the rangers seemed to be getting along. Lloyd and TJ were sparring. Lucas was taking something apart and hopelessly trying to fix it, Alex just shook her head as he assembled it wrong. Jess was reading a book beside them on a couch and Ayana savoured her hot meal in ages. With a sweat on, TJ and Lloyd came over. "Not bad kid, got a sweat on cos of that." TJ told the young red ranger. "Well, you've gotta know how to protect yourself." Lloyd replied.

Alex gave a sigh and got up off of the arm of the chair. "So, since we're all together, we might as well get to know each other a bit first. Let's see. Hmm...TJ! You're up." She told the others. "Wha- well okay. I prefer being called TJ but my full name is Theodore James Anderson. I'm quite a rebellious guy and I kinda hate my family...oh dear." He cut off as he saw his father accompanied by his guards enter the building.

TJ gave a sigh as he turned to the rest of the team. "And my father's here. Great. Everyone get ready to meet 'Lord Anderson' Head of the family. I was gonna tell you about it myself in a second but it seems that fate has other plans." He said as his father walked towards them. "Theodore! There you are. I was afraid you'd left entirely. Now get away from these filthy commoners, you'll catch something, I'm telling you!." His father ordered. "Dad, look. I'm nineteen now, I'm an adult and I can make my own decisions. That means who I hang out with too. Just go away. I don't want to carry on the family name, I want my own life and I don't want to end up like you." TJ argued. "It doesn't matter. You left the house without permission and now you must return. Men!" He called. Two burly guards grabbed a hold TJ and dragged him out of the building. "Screw you dad!" Was the only other thing the team heard as the commotion died down.

They all had a blank look on their faces as they tried to comprehend what had just happened. Before the alarm went off and summoned the remaining five to the command room. Lohan stood facing them. "Rangers, it seems that a new Terrasoid champion is attacking a civilian area. Get out there and stop them. I saw that TJ was taken away, you'll have to do without him whilst I sort out that situation. Move out." He ordered. The five gave a nod before running to a jeep ready outside.

[steam force]

Innocents ran as drones brought destruction under the orders of Armant. The five rangers, Lloyd, Alex, Lucas, Mia and Ayana, rolled up and jumped out. Alex did a high jump kick and Lloyd pounded some of their heads in. Lucas gave Ayana a boost and she struck a couple on the way back down. Mia kicked one down before she hit one in the back and threw one into the pile of them on the ground. All of the drones looked to be defeated and the rangers lined back up. "Ha! You think you could defeat me, the almighty, Armant like those drones. I bet you couldn't even take three of my soldiers, speaking of which." The creature mocked. His feelers twitched a little as three more humanoid ants burrowed to the surface. They were slightly smaller than Armant and were a light brown. Each brandished a bone blade. "Deal with them. I have havoc to cause." Armant ordered to the soldiers.

Lloyd looked at the others. "These guys look tough. Think we should morph?" He asked the others. Each gave a nod. "We're right with you." Alex confirmed. "It's morphing time!" He called. Each held out their arm as they pushed the lever forward and called out. "Full steam ahead!" Each was covered in a bright light as steam began to rise and cover them. Once it has settled, each ranger had donned their rail themed attire. Each of them pressed down on a sequence of keys to active a weapon.

1-0-1 ... shipping ... pipe blade ... arriving

Each ranger clutched their pipe blades as the soldiers charged forward. Lloyd, Lucas and Alex clashed blades with them as Ayana and Mia joined in. Lloyd kept one occupied whilst Ayana wounded it with a slash on the back. While it recovered, they ran to the others. Alex kicked one back into the blades of the two Rangers and it dispersed into black smoke. Mia and Lucas overwhelmed the third one and stabbed straight through it. Each of the five rangers struck the last remaining soldier that was already wounded. "Come on, we've gotta catch up with Armant before he causes any more trouble." Lloyd told the others as they sprinted after the Terrasoid.

[steam force]

TJ seethed in anger as he sat on his bed, looking over at the guard in front of him. "Look, I don't like you or any of my family, but I need to get out of here. If you can make that happen, I'll make it worth your while. I'll even throw in a bonus if you keep them away for good." TJ bargained. The guard contemplated it for a minute before pointing to a window. TJ opened it up and saw it had a small drop to a ledge. He gave a quick thank you nod to the guard before leaping down to the ledge. It seemed like his fitness training had paid off.

[steam force]

The five morphed teens faced off against the Terrasoid champion in the middle of a street. He brandished a bone pike and charged at the rangers. Lloyd and Alex managed to block it with their pipe blades whilst the other three slashed at Armant's thick carapace armour. They lunged at him but it left not even a scratch. He countered by flipping his pike around and knocking the red and white rangers off balance. He layer a few kicks into the unsuspecting green ranger before slashing the yellow ranger. Mia was on her own as the monster closed in.

The other rangers struggled to get up and Mia backed away as Armant got closer. He slashed down and then grabbed her by the neck. He threw her to the side and she landed on her arm with a crack. A morphed TJ was about to run up in anger when he was stopped by a call on his morpher. "TJ, you have to wound the Terrasoid with a ranged weapon, dial the code 0-7-3 it'll send you a steam blaster, similar to the pipe blade, it should be able to penetrate his armour in close range. Good luck kid." It cut off. TJ had dialled in his pipe blade already, he pressed down the buttons on his morpher and pulled the lever.

0-7-3 ... shipping ... steam blaster ... arriving

He shot towards Armant a few times to cause a distraction, hopefully the others will recuperate in time to finish this guy. "Alright you overgrown pest, come get me!" He called. "I'll destroy you just the same ranger!" He taunted with a reply. "Not this time." He said under his breath. He fired off a few shots before the warrior charged at him. Clashing blade against pike, TJ held his own as the Terrasiod pushed against him. TJ took aim with his other hand and fired a few times into the exoskeleton. It cracked open and small flames came from him. Armant backed up as he looked at his wound. The other rangers finally got back up and stood by him. "Great work TJ. Rangers, let's summon the rail cannon!" Lloyd congratulated.

0-3-4 ... shipping ... rail cannon ... arriving

The large ordinance appeared in front of them and each took their position on it.

"Loading compression shell!"

"Aiming rail cannon!"

"Locked and loaded!"

"Firing rail cannon!"

The blast shot out and became a steam train. Blasting Armant with each coloured cart before he was vaporised. Spores like that which came from galvan hit the ground. The rangers were about to breathe a sigh of relief when a thunderclap came and Armant rose as a giant. Lucas gave a sigh. "We're gonna need a bigger boot." He joked as they looked up at the now titanic Armant. "We need the rail riders now!" Lloyd called in. Soon enough the rail riders were overhead and the Rangers jumped in.

"Red express rider engaged!"

"White mono rider engaged!"

"Blue speed rider engaged!"

"Green tram rider engaged!"

"Yellow bus rider engaged!"

"Black passenger rider engaged!"

"Coupling zords! Steam Titan Megazord engage!"

Each zord came together again to form the hulking Megazord, finally the head came out with the rail mouth guard and the conductor hat as its eyes flashed a vibrant green.

"Steam Titan Megazord ready!"

TJ turned to the others. Looks like we've got a boot big enough to squash him this time!" He joked. The others laughed and Lucas lowered his head. They charged forward as the bus rider connected with Armant's face. The tram and speed riders struck it a few times too. "High jump kick, double strike!" They called as the Megazord struck him with both of it's feet.

He was wounded and the rangers were ready to end it. "Max speed! Collision strike!" They called as it began to pick up speed until it was at blur motion. The Megazord held its fists out and levelled out with jets of steam. It struck Armant square in the chest. Once more it turned as the monster blew up and vaporized into nothing.

[steam force]

The rangers sat around as they enjoyed the fruits of a job well done. Except for Ayana who was kinda mad she was working with someone from a rich family. She kept it in but would stay clear of him till her anger died down. Lucas turned on the TV and a news announcement about the exploits of the power ranger just finished. The news anchor turned to a pressing matter. In other news, Theodore James Anderson, heir to the Anderson family has been pronounced dead. It was reported that whilst trying to leave the premises of his house, he slipped and fell into the river, the currents dragging him to his death. It is an unfortunate tragedy that cannot be looked into any further. A public mourning will be held next week." The news anchor cut off and everyone sat there quiet.

In the middle of the night TJ sat there contemplating what he had done, he told the guard to seek a permanent solution and that's what he did, but did he go too far. His train of thought was interrupted by Moa giving a Yelp as she laid in her bed. With no further interruption, he drifted off to sleep.

[steam force]

The next morning, at a coffee shop by the city's Central Park, a young man sat drinking a cup of coffee and reading a pepper that was open on a page titled "so long TJ." Finishing his cup, he was tall with a lean build. He had short light brown hair with whisker stubble and in the opinion of many, he was rather handsome. He wore boots, dark slacks and a white collared shirt. Around his hips was a holster with a rather shiny revolver. He slung on a rugged brown suede bomber jacket and pulled out a pair of flying goggles which he place on his forehead. 'Better go see this Lohan about a supply run then' he thought as he headed in the direction of the ranger's base.

 **|Steam Force|**

 **That is chapter two and a character focus out of the way. So, he's legally dead now, someone on the team may want him dead if she can't control her anger and he has to go through this time as a ranger, seems like things got a whole lot harder for TJ. As for Mia, what's up with her, seems her fight left her more injured than first thought.**

 **So, this chapter will have something interactive after the synopsis, so go have a look at that. With that said, I'll see you another time.**

 **Next chapter: Test Run**

 **Synopsis: It seems due to the governor that the rangers have to go to school at least once a week. Due to a few mishaps one of the teens is out of action, and a teacher just happens to confiscate this particular ranger's morpher too. What will happen with this new problem? Who is this man making deliveries for Lohan? What new monsters will appear? Find out next time on Power Rangers: Steam Force.**

Now to the bit you've come down here for. Monster submissions. These will be for the Terrasoid champions sent to fight the rangers in each chapter/episode.

Name:

Insect based off:

Appearance:

Other details:

Just put any other info or personality features or anything else into the other details section. I'll be using them all so make them nice and interesting for me to use. Well that's all I have for this week so thanks for reading.


	6. Test Run

Power Rangers: Steam Force

Ch3: Test Run

Lohan stood over a desk, reading through the letter before him. At the bottom it beared the governor's symbol. He didn't like what he had in mind but he knew it was absolutely necessary. At least he wouldn't have to deal with six teenagers for one day of the week. TJ would have to stay behind of course but he would have something to do. Being a dead man does have its ups as well as its downs. He was in deep thought about the orders, sure he had to follow them, that didn't mean he liked them. His quiet time alone was interrupted by a suave gentlemen bursting through the door to his office. Followed by a scrawny secretary that was pretty afraid of what was going to happen next.

"I'm sorry sir, he just barged in here claiming he had to talk with you, said he had some sort of business with you. I'm not entirely sure what it is but he forced his way in before I could find out." The young secretary told his boss, slightly shaking in fear of him.

"Dismissed boy, I'll speak with this man, if I have need of security you will know." Lohan ordered.

The boy gave a nod before leaving and closing the door behind him. Lohan turned and piled his documents away before placing them to one side. He sat down at his desk and pointed to a seat opposite his, which the man sat down on.

"You know who I am and what I want. So tell me courier, what is your name?" Lohan asked as he searched his drawers for another file.

"My name is Welkin Stross. I am a professional goods courier for those with deep pockets and I don't ask questions if those pockets are deep enough." The man told him, he had a strong germanic accent, it was only apparent that he was German when he spoke.

"Nice to meet you. For this assignment, you'll need to know everything about it. So if you're sitting comfortably." Lohan paused. "I'll begin. Due to my position in the ranger program, I oversaw all progress on the morphers. Since its original shutdown, there are problems with getting the technology needed to create any more morphers, which may be necessary if the Terrasoids use the captured morpher against us. If I didn't have another option, you wouldn't be here. I have a colleague in a large town a ways off from here. It seems that his ranger program succeeded when taboo mystical occurrences happened and five teenagers stepped up to battle an evil dark lord of a time forgotten. Recently they even got a new ranger in their team. But that's beside the point. You see, if you meet up with him and his team, I'm sure they can supply us with what we need to carry things on. What do you say?" He finished.

Welkin thought it over for a minute. "You do know that there is a thing called too much information. Just saying 'go meet my friend and get components and data from him then bring it back here.' Will suffice in the future. Other than that. I'm in." He told the man as he adjusted his hair.

"I will work on my social skills, now it's time for you to get to work, I'll expect to hear from you in a few weeks. For today just enjoy Vicdon. And if you run into any monsters let the rangers handle it, I see you carry a gun but that won't help against these Terrasiods." He replied back.

The two men shook hands and Welkin got up and walked out of the room once he had exited the building he had a thought. 'Power Rangers hmm? Interesting. I knew this guy had an ace in the hole with what he was paying but those. I'm impressed.' Then he carried on walking away while humming a song in German.

[Steam Force]

At the operations station, TJ was sat reading a book while Ayana sparred with Lloyd and Lucas in a interchanging fight. Alex was tinkering with an old vacuum tube computer over by a workstation Mia was writing something out in a notebook. Interrupting the different activities was Lohan, who gave a yell to order them into the briefing room.

Once the were lined up, Lohan spoke to them. "TJ, you are dismissed, what I have to say doesn't apply if you're legally dead. As for the rest of you. Due to action taken by the governor, you rangers have to attend school once a week. This is all part of the propaganda so that he can keep his position in power. So if you'll all follow me." Lohan turned to the exit.

As he did, the five rangers followed, some with annoyed looks on their face. For others that weren't wealthy enough to attend school. One such as Ayana, was wondering what the whole situation would be like. At least she didn't have to be near TJ for a time, that was a good thing in her eyes at least. Mia was happy about the situation. At least this time she would have some friends to talk to, even if they were rather new friends.

[Steam Force]

Inside the hive, Stinger let out a furious roar and slashed through a drone before him. It seemed that it had brought some bad news. He was unleashing his anger for a few more seconds until he was interrupted by the voice of his Queen.

"Stinger, what on earth is the matter?" She asked as she walked over to her throne. Taking her seat, she placed a hand on her chin. "Go on, tell me what has gotten you so upset?" She waved her free hand at him.

The wasp like champion knelt before speaking up. "It is a matter of urgency. Someone has breached the royal hatchery and taken a hatchling. The royal hatchery houses our most powerful of kin. If we do not retrieve this child then whoever has taken it will lay waste to us. Allow me to deal with this." He elaborated.

The Queen thought for a moment. She had taken a hatchling and transformed it into a humanoid form, he was growing well now and had just about reached the walking phase. Soon he would traverse the halls of the hive. Perhaps now would be the time for her to reveal her plans. "That is not necessary, I will explain on the way. Follow me." Nyllia rose from the throne and walked through the corridors with her most trusted champion following close behind.

[Steam Force]

The five rangers had been sat in classes and experienced the day to day running of the school by the last session. For the most part, it had been an interesting experience and it was clear that Vicdon invested a lot into the future of students. It had come to almost an end and the last lesson seemed to drag on. History with Mr. Connolly. He was a buff middle aged man that seemed out of place as a history teacher. As usual there would be a backstory which would explain why he didn't fit, yet no student cared about that or the history subject for that matter. True enough that he is hard on the students. Mia for one had been given three strikes already and was one away from detention. Unfortunately her morpher buzzed and she picked it up to listen in.

"This is TJ calling, we have a monster problem and I need the five of you to back me up!" He called through the comm. "tell the other rangers that there's trouble and get over here quickly. Oh, gotta go, almost took a hit then." He cut off.

She turned her head to the sight of Mr. Connelly. An angry face looming over her. All the words she heard were "Detention." As he swiped the morpher from her, obviously not knowing what it was. She managed to convey the message to the others before the bell rang but had to stay behind and retrieve her morpher, if she could.

Half an hour after the bell rang, the other rangers must've been fighting by now. Strangely enough she had been locked in the classroom and had heard no word from Mr. Connelly since. Something had to have gone wrong for this to have happened. And now she had to plan an escape route.

[Steam Force]

TJ had called five minutes ago and still no word. He was outnumbered by drones and an eight legged, beady eyed Champion who had named himself Spinarach. The blue ranger pelted some drones with his pipeblade before backing off. He panted to try and catch his breath. 'This is much more difficult without a team to fight with. Hope the others get here soon, Mia seemed to get cut off by something. Should be fine, I just hope they got my message.' TJ thought as he batted the numerous drones attacking him. He was becoming overwhelmed by the sheer force and numbers of the drones and he was just about ready to give in when the other four rangers came into the fight to back TJ up.

"Glad you guys could make it. I could only get a hold of Mia and she was gone after a few seconds, she isn't here so I presume that something happened to her." He thanked the others.

Lloyd turned to him. "Yeah, she's sorta in detention. I'm sure that she'll be fine, but we'll have to fight without her." He informed the blue ranger.

The five rangers turned forward to the massed Terrasoid swarm. Each pointed their pipeblades at the drones and charged forward. The street was rather empty thanks to the monsters, the only problem was is that it was a residential area and they would have to be careful of any damage and to watch out for civilians that could be returning home.

[Steam Force]

Mia had finally rummaged through enough drawers to fortunately find a spare key in front of the door. She was wondering how the others had been doing without her. After unlocking the door and heading out of the main entrance, she looked over to where a radiant glow persisted for a few seconds before vanishing.

"Looks like the handiwork of the rail cannon. But it can't be!" Mia exclaimed in disbelief. she wasn't there to operate it. Then again she wasn't in possession of her morpher…

[Steam Force]

Back in the fight, TJ was happy to have a team to back him up this time. Lloyd kicked a few drones towards him which he dispatched. Ayana and lucas were back to back slashing down drones left right and centre, finally Alex was wading through the enemy and taking out drones as she went by with her pipeblade.

Walking down the street was no other than Mr. Connelly. He was focused on studying the black steam morpher to discover exactly what it did. Then he hit into a large figure. "Oh, I'm terribly sorry about that sir." He apologised. Then lifting his head to see that he had in fact walked into the Terrasoid champion Spinarach.

"Oh you will be sorry!" It hissed. Spinarach lifted one of its large hairy legs and sweeped at the teacher.

Mr. Connelly fell backwards and the steam morpher flew out of his hands. He was knocked to the floor and the morpher landed upon his wrist. In an effort to catch it, he accidentally pushed the lever forward initiating the morphing sequence. He closed his eyes in fear as a bright light began to emanate from him before turning to steam.

When he opened his eyes, he was morphed in the black steam force suit. He got up and met the gaze of Spinarach, who was phased by the sudden transformation of an ordinary person. He examined the suit he was now in, impressed by its design. Then he saw the other rangers finish off the remaining drones and decided to run over to them.

The five were confused by the sudden appearance of a black ranger that wasn't who it usually is. "Huh, who're you?" Lloyd asked as the teacher came up to them.

"I'm a teacher, and apparently one of my students is a power ranger." Mr. Connelly told them.

TJ stepped in. "Well whoever you are we're gonna need your help. Press in the number sequence 1-0-1 and follow us. Got it?" TJ asked the temporary ranger.

"Got it." He acknowledged before pressing in the sequence and summoning the pipeblade.

The six of them ran at Spinarach who swiped out to keep them away. TJ and Lucas boosted up Alex and Ayana so that they would land behind Spinarach while the other four rangers kept the champion's attention away from the two girls with their weapons.

"Summoning Steam blaster!" The white and yellow ranger's said in unison.

0-7-3 … shipping … steam blaster … arriving

The two of them watched as the blasters formed in their hands. In front, the others were keeping Spinarach busy with their pipeblades. The two of them aimed at the back of the head and unleashed blaster fire into the Terrasoid who fell down in reaction.

The six of them regrouped in one line and Lloyd spoke up. "It's time to finish this guy. Let's summon the rail cannon!"

"Rail cannon?" Mr. Connelly asked with confusion.

"Just follow our lead teach." Alex told him as the others held out their arms and pressed down on the keypad.

0-3-4 … shipping … rail cannon … arriving

As the large ordinance appeared, the rangers took their positions and Mr Connelly was guided to his.

"Loading compression shell!"

"Aiming rail cannon!"

"Locked and loaded!"

"Firing rial cannon!"

The energy shot out, transforming into a train and different coloured carts. It hit through Spinarach and caused a multicoloured explosion of light to destroy the spider like Terrasoid. Once he was gone, the spores dropped down to the surface again and rejuvenated Spinarach into a giant. The rangers looked up at the monster.

They were about to call upon the rail riders when an exhausted voice called out to them. "Hey guys! Thought you could use a hand."

"Mia!" They replied with surprise.

She saw the black ranger and ran up to him. "Sorry sir but I'm gonna take my morpher back now." She told him as she pulled it off his arm. Mr. Connelly demorphed back to his old self as Mia placed her morpher back on her wrist. She held it out and pushed the lever forward. "Full stem ahead!" She shouted as she transformed and her ranger suit replaced her when the steam lifted.

"Let's call the rail riders!" The red ranger shouted.

From their gigantic storage shed, each ride powered up and drove along the lines. Eventually elevating above the rails into the sky. The six rangers jumping up into their individual zords.

"Red express rider engaged!"

"White mono rider engaged!"

"Blue speed rider engaged!"

"Green tram rider engaged!"

"Yellow bus rider engaged!"

"Black passenger rider engaged!"

"Coupling Zords! Steam titan Megazord engage!" They announced as the white and blue riders took position as the legs. The red rider transformed into the body and attached to the legs. The black rider separated and joined with the Megazord body to create the shoulders and finally, the yellow and green riders transformed into arms and attached to the rest of the machine. The steampunk head popped up and the Megazord was once again ready.

"Steam titan Megazord, ready!"

The titian charged forward and landed an uppercut to the Terrasoid who stumbled back in recoil. The megazord hit with a sidekick to Spinarach yet his spider legs blocked it and spun the megazord around, slamming it into the ground. The megazord got up quickly and landed a few rapid kicks with the speed rider before levelling out.

"I've had enough of toying around! Time for you rangers to get caught in my web!" Spinarach yelled out in surprise to the rangers. He spun around and shot thick rope like spider silk at them and wrapped the megazord up tight. "And now to finish you off!" He enthused.

He reared his legs to pounce at the megazord yet as he was about to leap, he was distracted by the hum of an engine. He turned his head and saw a biplane fly past him as he planted his legs back down on the floor. "What the hell?" Spinarach asked as he watched it fly away.

As he turned around he was met with a strong punch from the megazord which had released itself from the web. Standing to fight, the rangers inside adjusted some controls.

"Max speed! Collision strike!" They announced as the megazord ran with extreme speed before hovering using the jets of steam as it became horizontal and lifted its fists forward. It smashed through the Terrasoid and blew it to pieces as it set alight. The steam titan megazord stood upright and relaxed in victory.

[Steam Force]

The biplane soared over the skies and above a great forest. Welkin sat at the helm operating the plane. Just up ahead was his destination. "Looks like Castelan is just up ahead. Now I need to find this Doctor Blake the old man was talking about." Welkin told himself as he lowered the plane down to prepare for arrival…

|Steam Force|

 **And that is chapter 3 of steam force. Apologies it is so late but I had technical difficulties and I was sorta sick. Anyways, I'm all better now and can get on with writing again.**

 **This chapter was just an idea I had for a temporary ranger just to change things up a little bit. Kivo is going to be revealed to the rest of the Terrasoids soon and the mystery man has been revealed to be Welkin Stross. You'll find out more about him later on. Plus, if you didn't understand the last scene, he's headed to the town Mythos is set and he'll be making an appearance there soon. Leave a review and tell me what you think of this chapter and the next chapter of Mythos should be here in the weekend.**

 **Next chapter: Dark dealings**

 **Synopsis: When the rangers are out for the day, someone from Lucas' past turns up and gets them into a sticky situation involving a Terrasoid. Can they work everything out? Find out next time in Power Rangers: Steam Force.**


	7. Dark Dealings

Power Rangers: Steam Force

Ch4: Dark Dealings

A beautiful day dawned upon Vicdon as cargo ships departed and set anchor in the light of dawn. A small biplane whizzed through the air as the golden sunlight blinded the view of the vehicle flying in. Out on the rather busy Sunday morning markets, the six rangers had been granted the day off from their usual routine to enjoy it, per Lucas' suggestion, they had come here, where their green ranger was giving them a personal tour from the perspective of someone who worked on the market stalls himself.

"So, this street is the hub for all of your meat and fish. Don't mind the horrid smell of it, that's usually from Connor's fisheries. Word of advice don't shop there. While he's a friend, he's really bad at preparing fish and it's usually rotten by the time you get it." He informed them as several of the rangers hand a hand to their face to prevent the whiff of the street from invading their nostrils.

"Can we get out of here? The stink is killing my sense of smell." Mia complained as Lloyd and Alex agreed with her.

"I honestly don't know what you guys are talking about. I've been down worse streets before." Ayana chimed into the conversation

"Fine, let's get out of here. I know a shortcut, just down near my old stomping ground. Maybe we'll run into a few of my old buddies too." Lucas finally said as they complained amongst themselves.

The five teens then followed Lucas down a side street and then he turned turned down a back alley. The five stopped and stared at lucas with skeptical looks on their faces. Lucas stopped when he no longer heard footsteps following him. He turned around and shrugged.

"What? We're gonna be perfectly fine, it doesn't look very promising but I assure you that we'll be perfectly safe." As he finished his sentence, someone hiding from around the corner hit the green ranger over the head with a lead pipe, knocking him unconscious.

A young man, dressed in patched up rags and sporting messy black hair came from around the corner. He began to speak as he mocked the unconscious ranger he had knelt down next to.

"Well well well. Looks like I finally found you Lucas. Soon enough we're gonna have a little chat, for now, enjoy your nap. Oh, I didn't see you lot there! Listen, you didn't see anything." He attempted to convince the other five rangers stood before him.

"You just knocked out our friend! We're not letting you go any further with this, right guys!" Lloyd asserted to the young man with the pipe. The others gave nods in confirmation.

"Ooh, I'm so scared." The scoundrel mocked as he flailed his arms in a sort of joking surrender. "How about you all meet my friends then." With a snap of his fingers a group of armed thugs of various ages appeared from behind them and around the corner the young man came from. "Get em boys." He ordered as the gang closed in on the rangers.

"We've thought Terrasoids before, how could this be worse?" Alex toyed, trying to raise their morale while being outnumbered. Then the first hits came.

[Steam Force]

Queen Nyllia sat upon her organic throne in the central chamber of the Terrasoid hive. Thinking to herself in how she could defeat, or at least slow the power rangers down for a bit. She shook her head in failure as nothing was coming to her. A common thing when the mind is distracted by other things. Kivo appeared to be a toddler now. He was walking around, stumbling at times, running at others. In such a hyperactive phase it is wisest to keep an eye on him, even if the young boy is beginning to cause trouble with some of the other Terrasoids.

At times she could see young Kivo stamp on the toes of Stinger and watch him scream out in pain, this resulted in the commander of the Terrasoid forces to chase the young one around till catching him and then the process repeating. Tired of the comedic value in this, the Queen raised her voice to her commander turned child punching bag.

"Stinger, I have need of you!" She called. He immediately obeyed and left the boy alone, then knelt at her throne. "I tire of plotting, bring Kivo to me and then find a monster that we can use against the rangers. And do not fail me!" She commanded. He gave a nod before retrieving the child and placing him in her arms, then leaving. Her tone became softer. "Now then Kivo, I have something special planned for today." She told him as the yellow ring around his pupil glowed brightly.

[Steam Force]

Slowly the darkness drifted from her eyes and Alex woke up. Her surroundings were a lot different than when they began fighting. She was in what appeared to be a derelict warehouse, a rope wrapped around her and she appeared to be tied to someone else too. The young man tied up to the back of her slowly regained consciousness too and looked around him s surroundings. Alex was the first to speak up as she felt a tug on the rope.

"Who is that?" She asked in a hushed tone.

"Alex? Is that you? It's me TJ, what happened?" He asked, not recalling the events of the fight.

"We were in a fight, there were too many of them, we couldn't hold them off and then everything went black. That's all I remember." She explained to him.

"So much for being easier than Terrasoids." TJ joked as the sat on the concrete floor, tied to each other. Their conversation seemed to have caused more in the room to awaken.

Chained to a large barrel further away from them were Lloyd, Ayana and Mia. Ayana was the first to awaken. She looked around and saw the situation she was in and gave a sigh. Then she turned her attention to the other two.

"Looks like we all got a bit unlucky in that fight." She told them.

"We got wiped out by a bunch of scumbags." TJ replied, which made the yellow ranger frown a bit to call them that, even if it was true for some.

"Sure… Oh and remind me never to trust Lucas again if he says it's safe." She finished.

"Speaking of which, where is he?" Mia asked, joining in after waking up, along with Lloyd who was trying to break out of the chains.

"Looks like we're about to find out." Alex nodded to the door as some of the thugs entered carrying old rust shackles.

[Steam Force]

A small biplane touched down upon the runway of Vicdon airport, a less popular form of travel compared to the train station but still in good use in the victorian hive-like city. As the propeller came to a halt, out stepped Welkin Stross, sporting a smooth look on his face and walking tall as he made his way through the streets.

Finally he made it to the operations station and sat down in the office of General Lohan, who had recently shaved off his white beard. Lohan sat at his desk, finishing reading up a report on security modifications to the city. Lohan looked up and closed the report.

"Ah, Mr. Stross, you've returned. Was your mission a success?" He asked surprised at the man's early return.

"I received results. Even better than expected. Your friend created a morpher, originally for another purpose I believe yet he was kind enough to hand it over for use right away since it wasn't currently needed. This is that morpher." Welkin held up his wrist and pulled down his bomber jacket to reveal the wrist brace with its sleek radial piston design. "I've taken to calling it the radial brace." Welkin leaned in close and whispered. "And just between you and me, I call her Vera when nobody's around." He joked before taking his back to the seat once more.

"I must extend my gratitude to the doctor soon then. I suppose since you're wearing it, that means you've decided to keep it. While I'd prefer to choose the wearer of such a weapon, you'll have to do. Welcome aboard." Lohan congratulated.

"Yes, thanks. Now there is one thing. You see being a cargo pilot, I still have to work, therefore I'll be a ranger when you need it, not all of the time. Deal?" Stross informed Lohan who was stunned by what he was saying. "I'm a businessman first Lohan, you must understand."

"I do, welcome aboard, I trust we can count on you." Lohan shook Stross' hand as they agreed on the terms of their arrangement. "Now I need you on alert in case a Terrasoid shows up. The rangers went silent a while ago on their day off. I'm sure it's nothing but just be ready.

"This is just like when I went to Castelan, why do these rangers keep taking breaks." Welkin sighed. "Not to worry, I've got it covered. Come on Vera." He told the morpher as he headed out humming another tune.

[Steam Force]

Lucas was tied to an office chair in a room above the warehouse with a stairwell just in front of the window, it was likely the manager's office. He attempted to break free of his restraints yet he was unsuccessful. That was when he heard the door open and footsteps behind him. His kidnapper turned to face him and Lucas gave a frown.

"Max. I should've known. An ambush like that is your kind of thing. So, now that you have me, care to explain why you kidnapped me?" He asked,still attempting to free himself of his restraints.

Max gave out a small chuckle. "It's not just you that I've kidnapped, I also took your friends too. Don't believe me? Take a look." He informed the green ranger as he wheeled him over to the window, overlooking the factory floor.

Down below were a group of thugs, at their feet were the other five rangers. On their knees, shackles around their wrists. An angry look came across Lucas' face. He struggled against his bindings once more.

"Let them go now Max!" Lucas yelled as he pushed against the restraints.

"No, no, no. You don't understand, I plan to ransom off the important ones, such as blue and red over there. I might decide to keep your friend in white in my possession,I like the look of her. The rest of your friends, well, I already have a buyer. For now, I have a meeting with a pilot to ship me some goods. I assure you'll keep quiet right." Max explained with an evil expression on his face.

Lucas seethed in anger. "We aren't objects that you can trade and sell. You won't get away with this!" He yelled once again as Max left.

Once his captor did, Lucas pushed against the rope keeping hi there again, with great force, he heard the backrest of the chair crack and he was free. He pulled the rope off him and opened the door and started down the walkway. His friends had been moved and the group of thugs were dealing with a man in a brown bomber jacket.

[Steam Force]

Five minutes earlier, Welkin Stross was walking through the port district of the city on his way to meet with a client. Then abruptly, the inbuilt communicator in the radial brace went off. He held it up to his face and spoke.

"What's up Lohan?" He asked as a worried voice came in.

"We know where the rangers are. From what we took of the camera feed in that district, they've been kidnapped. The warehouse they've been kept in thanks to the info on the tracking devices is on the Praetor boulevard. You can't miss it." He informed the ranger.

"I was just there to do business, what're the chances. Looks like I'll be making a different kind of deal with them today." Welkin told Lohan. "I'll head there now." Stross finished as he cut off the communicator and made his way there at running speed.

[Steam Force]

Lucas made his way down the ramp and came into the view of the grunts. He called out his former friend with a rageful voice. "MAX! It's time to end this!"

The man in the bomber jacket, revealed to be Welkin Stross stepped up. "That's all I needed." He told himself eying the morpher on the other ranger's hand. "Max, we're gonna have to stop doing business from now on, kidnapping isn't good." He then turned to Lucas. " Hey, kid, you wanna show them who they're messing with?" Stross asked with a knowing smirk before flashing his radial brace.

Lucas stepped beside the older ranger. "Sure. Ready?"

"Ready." He confirmed lifting up his arm. "Radial brace…. Ready for takeoff!" Stross called as he was encased in a bright white light.

"Full Steam Ahead!" Lucas called as he was covered with a white light and then was covered by steam.

Lucas stood in his Steam Force outfit while stross wore a similar outfit to him, just in a different style. It composed of a silver suit with black pants, black arrows pointing upwards along the arms, the radial brace rested on his right arm. Upon his chest was the emblem of a propeller, around his waist was a belt with the same radial design as the morpher. Attached to both his arms, by the wrist, were wing styled blades. His helmet's visor was a V shape and the helmet had a shutter mouthguard that seemed to be like a vent. On the sides of his helmet were vertical wings with aerodynamic positioning. Attached to his belt was a holster which housed a large revolver. It had pipes sprouting from the back and had two thin wings coming out of the side of it, the handle of the pistol was designed to look like an eagle's wing.

Lucas looked at the ranger suit impressed. "Nice outfit, what ranger team are you from?" He asked.

"Yours." Welkin replied as they headed into hand to hand combat.

He used his wing vambrace blades to slash the more brutish enemies while Lucas summoned his pipeblade and beat the lower members of the gang. Soon enough, Max was the only one left. As Welkin finished the last thug, Lucas spoke up.

"You get the others, Max is mine." He ordered, Welkin gave a nod and ran into another room where fighting began to occur. "It's over Max, you're done."

"Oh no, don't say that, the fun is just beginning. Take a look yourself." Max pointed behind the green ranger who turned to see a group of drones following a bipedal cricket monster. "That's my buyer for your friends, I prefer not to stick around though, so I'll be off." Max smirked as he ran off through another exit.

"Max! Get back here!" Lucas yelled, yet he was not responsive. Lucas turned back around "Guess you'll just have to do." He told the Terrasoids.

The other six rangers soon joined Lucas and they turned their attention to the enemy before them. The five unmorphed stood in formation with the two other rangers at either side of them.

"Full Steam Ahead!" They all called as they underwent their morph, engulfed in white light before being covered in steam. The seven stood ready.

1-0-1… Shipping… Pipeblade… Arriving

The armed rangers then proceeded to slash through the drones. As they did, welkin faced off against the bipedal cricket. Using his vambrace blades, he wore the monster down, slowly taking away the strength of it. The rangers finished their opponents off and looked on at Welkin and his fighting form.

"I think that's enough of this close quarters crap. Time to face may Sky Striker Pistol!" Welkin pulled out the blaster and knocked back the monster He held the pistol up and began charging a powerful burst. "Sky Strike Overcharge!" He yelled squeezing the trigger. A powerful silver energy burst came from the weapon and collided with the monster, obliterating it. Then the dark spores emerged and grew it to super size.

"Let us deal with it!" Lloyd told the silver clad ranger, who simply shook his head.

"I want to show off a little bit more if that's okay with you. There's another button on my morpher which I haven't tried yet. If you'll excuse me." Stross put his hand to the button and pressed it down with force. "Activating Wing Straffer!" He announced as he jumped up high only to land in a large plane. "Wow, this is like an NA-98X! Stross told himself, sounding impressed. The Zord was large and appeared to be a outfitted for bombing runs. "No time to see what this baby can do!" Stross enthused as he pulled the levers, heading to face the monster.

It flew over the titanic cricket and it's hatch doors opened up. "Time for you to feel the force." Welkin remarked as a large set of bombs dropped from the hatch and lit up the monster, incinerating it and turning it to nothing but ash. Once it had settled, welkin disembarked and joined the other rangers who were amazed that they had such a powerful ally and congratulated the new ranger.

[Steam Force]

The rangers sat with their new teammate talking and learning about him and his many adventures. Then Lohan walked up to the lounging rangers.

"Well done Stross. You are powerful indeed. While it pains me that you won't be here all of the time, at least we can count on you when it matters. As for the rest of you, let this be a warning. Some places in Vicdon are dangerous, tread lightly." He told them before turning and leaving.

"And with that rangers, I must be off. I have another delivery to make. I'm sure we'll meet again in the future, but for now. It is farewell." Welkin got up and started walking out. "But just know that I'll be by your sides when you need it friends." He finished as he exited the building and started humming another tune as he walked.

|Steam Force|

 **That is the fourth installment over and done with. Welkin proved to be a powerful ally, though he won't always be there to help them. And Lucas' 'friend' was going to trade most of the rangers over to the terrasoids to make a quick buck. Lucas will no doubt wait for Max's return.**

 **Now that's over, anyone anticipating Martial Strike, I had to remain impartial to the whole thing going on over there and people are desperately anticipating word from me on the next instalment. I have begun work on that chapter already and it will be coming out in the week. So, anyone who reads Martial Strike, could you relay the message that it's coming out later in the week. Now onto the next chapter synopsis.**

 **Next Chapter: Just a poor Girl**

 **Synopsis: Another character focus. This time it focuses on Steam Force Yellow, Ayana. The rangers find out about her loathing for the rich of the city and this makes some of the rangers uncomfortable. Can they stay as a team or will the prejudice of an underprivileged young woman force them apart and cause chaos? Find out next time on Power Rangers: Steam Force**


	8. Just a Poor Girl

Power Rangers: Steam Force

Ch5: Just a Poor Girl

It was a rather cold day in the city of Vicdon and the six rangers had just finished another training session in their HQ. Alex, as usual after training, was working on some gizmo that the other rangers didn't understand. TJ, Lloyd and Lucas we're playing one of the many FPS games they had for the entertainment system. Mia was working on a computer away from the other rangers, while Ayana was in deep thought on a particular matter.

Her train of thought broke as TJ let out a moan of defeat as the two others teamed up on him to kill his character. She had an annoyed expression on her face looking at the blue ranger. Then TJ got up and headed past Ayana, still angry with him. He gave a confused look as he went by. A few minutes passed and TJ had changed into his training clothes. Then he spoke up, gaining the attention of the rangers.

"Hey, anyone wanna spar for a bit? I got tired of that video game anyway." He asked them, just about all of them turned back to what they were doing. Ayana got up off of her chair and headed over.

"Sure, I'll fight you, got nothing better to do anyway." She told him, putting a pair of sparring gloves over her hands. They both got into ready stances while the others scrapped what they were doing to see how it would turn out.

TJ wasn't being serious about the fight, unluckily for him, Ayana was. She had a dark look to her as she ran at him. He managed to avoid her first punch but was caught off guard when her other hand came round and hit him square in the jaw. He staggered back from the shock of impact and was about to ready himself when she kicked him to the floor and twisted his arm behind his back, causing him to scream out in tremendous pain. The red and green rangers had to run in and pull her off when she wouldn't stop.

"What's wrong with you?" Lloyd asked her as they tried holding her down.

"I don't need to tell you guys anything." She said as she knocked the two off of her and stormed off. The other four looked on in confusion. TJ managed to get up a short time after with a bit of help.

"You okay TJ?" Lloyd asked, concerned about his teammate.

"I think she nearly broke my arm. What's up with her?" He managed to say, still wincing in pain from earlier.

"I think we better ask Lohan about this." Alex suggested to them. When TJ had recovered, they went over to their control room.

[Steam Force]

Queen Nyllia resided on her throne, currently regretting the decision to create Kivo in the first place. At this point in time, his accelerated growth had come to the point where he appeared to be a ten year old, able to talk walk and think just like one. Unfortunately the child was rather mischievous and was currently battering a group of drones with a big stick he had just found. The queen herself had become sick of it. Stinger gave out a furious roar as he was hit with the stick before the queen stood up and raised her voice.

"Kivo! Come here!" She called, the scamp then dropped the stick and ran over and wrapped his arms around her leg, clutching to hit. She gave an annoyed sigh as he did so. Then she knelt down and looked at the boy. "Kivo, do you like hitting my warriors?" She asked, in a lighter tone.

"Yes I do." The young boy nodded with a grin.

"Good, because I want you to train to fight now and get better, then I have something very special for you, so if you train hard every day till Stinger there says you're ready, I'll give you it." She told him giving a cruel smile to the wasp commander at the base of the organic throne.

"I want the present!" He exclaimed in a giddy voice before running to retrieve his stick.

"Good boy!" She reassured as the ten year old took the commander by surprise and began to beat the commander with it. She then lowered her head. "Now to find a creature to deal with those rangers." She said to herself as she watched her son mercilessly beat her commander.

[Steam Force]

The five stood in the room opposite Lohan, with the console between them. The old man gave a sigh before raising his head to them. Then he spoke up.

"I knew that this would happen eventually, just didn't know when." He told them.

"Wait, you knew she'd go berserk and didn't tell us!?" TJ asked, slightly outraged.

"I didn't know exactly. I knew that one of you would take off eventually, I just didn't know who, when or how. I suppose you all want an explanation." He informed them.

"Yeah, why else would we be standing here?" Alex confirmed. The rangers waited as the man took a breath in before telling them.

"Ayana is a really complicated young woman. Let me start by saying, we, the government, have extensive files on all of you, which were put together after your recruitment, these allowed me to understand each of you well. Now onto why. She and her family, like many others are working class and suffer from poverty, the government has intervened now and they are better off, yet it's where she comes from that is, key. Sorry, bear with me one moment." Lohan paused and walked over to the table.

He picked up and drank from a glass of water before turning around and addressing the rangers again. "Carrying on. She worked on the ports since she was very young, manual labour is all she's known. Her brother had an accident causing her to become overworked supporting all of her family. After a while it turned to bitter resentment for anyone in the upper class. Finding out that you, TJ, are of the upper class and had no threat from poverty etc., most likely set her off, and when you offered to spar, she took it as an opportunity to get her own back. She lost control and took it too far, then she stormed off." He explained to them. "Any questions?" He finished.

"Yeah, where do we find her?" Lloyd asked.

"I'd suggest you try her district, it's a big one so you might wanna spread out." He answered.

[Steam Force]

The teens spread out and separated to cover more ground in the port district. TJ had gone alone to the docks area of the district. The sun was blinding as TJ stared at the water, where he saw a figure sat down at the edge of the docks. As he walked further to the water's edge, the figure became clearer. When he reached the figure, he saw that it was in fact Ayana.

"Hey there. Mind if I sit down?" He asked her. She replied with an annoyed grunt and folded her arms when she noticed who it was. TJ proceeded to sit down and continued with what he was going to say.

"Listen, Lohan told us everything, about your struggle, that you hate anyone in the upper class. But I still don't get why you almost broke my arm yesterday." He told her.

Finally turning to him, she let out a sigh. "A few weeks ago, when we found out that you're part of the Anderson family, well, it brought up something I thought had stayed in the past, as the weeks passed, it got harder for me to keep my emotions in. Earlier all I could think about was injuring you, having a sparring session gave me the chance and I got too carried away." She explained.

"I see, but I still don't understand what happened to you that made you like this." He replied.

"I had an unemployment period shortly after my brother was injured, luckily some people took pity and we were kept fed till I got a job transporting goods between the boats and the docks. But in that time, I was always out on the streets, begging for anything that would help. There was this one day where we had torrential rain. I managed to take shelter underneath an overhanging sheet of cloth. Then a man, well dressed, holding a black umbrella over his head walked past. I knew he was a rich man by the look of him, and his posture, lording over everyone…" Her tone darkened as she trailed off.

TJ noticed this. "Umm, Ayana, you okay?" He asked, she snapped out it as he asked.

"Yeah, I was just remembering what he did." The yellow ranger told him, trying to keep focused.

"What happened then?" He asked as Ayana took a breath, ready to continue her account of the flashback.

"I asked him if he could help me and lend money to me and my family in the time of need, in his other hand, he carried a black cane, instead of helping, he proceeded to hit me in the side of the face with the handle of his cane. I went to the floor from shock when it hit my face, he then proceeded to drag me out into the rainy streets and leave me there, probably for dead." She finished.

TJ's eyes widened at hearing that. "That's horrible, how could someone do that to anyone!?" He burst out.

"You're actually outraged by that? I thought all you rich folks were the same, at least they are in my experience." She pondered.

"Did anything else happen that day?" TJ asked again, still shocked from what he had heard.

"Yeah, though it was a bit blurry after being struck. Someone, I don't know who, I think they were wearing a black- no a navy blue raincoat, his hood was up, whoever he was, he carried me through the rain and to a shelter where he paid for a bed for me, I woke up the next morning with a headache and that was it. Never heard from the guy again." She informed him, trying to remember anything else about her saviour.

TJ had a sense of Deja Vu about the whole thing. "I see. What happened to you… It was horrific, nobody should suffer such cruelty like that. Not everyone in the upper class is like him though, you may not believe me know, but let me show you. I want to make amends for what that guy did to you. It's the least I can do to help out, deal." He offered, hoping that she'd take him up on his offer.

"Sure." Ayana replied simply.

"Thanks for giving me the chance to help out, the damage that's been done, it isn't right. I just wanna rectify that." He told her, giving a sigh of relief.

The two got up off of the stone pier and turned around. Ayana turned to the blue ranger. "Thanks for listening to me, and understanding. I may not like aristocrats, but I'm glad I don't have to hate you, you seem sincere enough anyway, I was mad at someone else and shouldn't have been mad at you. I'm… Sorry I injured you earlier." She apologised, lowering her head.

"It's no big deal, I've had people want to do worse, at least you knew where your heart really was, most people just blamed me for others wrongdoings, especially my father. Now to go find the others, they're all over the district in an effort to find you. Up for a bit of a run-around?" He asked her, giving a joking smile.

"Not really, but they're likely lost without us." She replied, then they stood still and silent as they looked down the stone path to see a Centipede like monster facing them with its many limbed, wavy arms. A group of drones stood behind the creature.

"Seriously?" TJ said as the two rangers looked at it.

"You rangers are gonna get squashed!" It asserted, waving its arms around.

"Wanna bet on that ugly? TJ, you ready?" Ayana asked. The other ranger gave an affirmative nod to her.

"Full Steam Ahead!" They both called, pushing the lever on their morphers forwards. They were engulfed in bright white light which turned to steam, as it dissipated, the yellow and blue rangers stood ready, the blue ranger had summoned his pipeblade and Ayana had summoned her steam blaster, ready to deal with the group.

TJ took on the monster while Ayana dispatched the monsters, from separate areas of the district, the four remaining rangers heard the fighting and ran towards it, when they arrived, they saw that the drones had been defeated while the morphed yellow and blue rangers had regrouped, ready to destroy the monster.

0-7-3 … shipping … steam blaster … arriving

TJ held his steam blaster, pointed at the creature. "Ready." He said as Ayana followed suit.

"Aim!" She said as they both focused their weapons for a direct attack on the monster.

"Fire!" They called in unison, firing at the same time, their energy bolts intertwined and hit the monster directly causing tremendous damage and destroying the monster, yet also releasing dark spores. Then the monster rematerialized, growing to tremendous size.

TJ looked at the other rangers. "We'll be fine with this one, you guys stand and watch." He told them, and they did so, still confused as to how they were working together after earlier.

The blue speed rider and yellow bus rider hovered overhead as the rangers jumped into them.

"Blue speed rider engaged!"

"Yellow bus rider engaged!"

"Hey Ayana, how about we combine our Zords? Give him another taste of tag team power!" TJ suggested to her.

"Sure, let's link up!" She confirmed, getting the bus rider in place behind the speed rider before they coupled together. Inside the cockpit, TJ saw that the bus rider's cockpit was merging with his as Ayana appeared next to him.

"Glad to have you aboard" He told her.

"Likewise." She confirmed.

The linked riders circled the centipede, which was attempting to match the speed of the blue zord, which it failed to do. Then the speed rider turned and headed away from the battle, bus rider still linked to it.

"It's time for you to feel the full force!" TJ told the creature, which was exhausted from chasing the zords.

"Yeah, Speed Bus rider, combo strike!" Ayana carried on.

"Maximum impact!" They said in unison, pushing levers forward to increase the speed to its limits.

"No! This cannot happen to me!" The creature squealed as the train combo headed towards it.

The train combination was surrounded by blue and yellow energy as it reached maximum velocity. When it did, it hit the monster head on, tearing it to pieces and completely destroying it.

[Steam Force]

The yellow and blue rangers were having a pleasant conversation for once in the lounge area of their headquarters, while the others just looked on, still confused as to how there was such an abrupt change in how they acted towards one another, clearly, they must have had an eye opening conversation to go from one of them almost breaking the other's arm to being friendly with each other. A few of them were relieved that she wasn't as vengeful to the upper class anymore.

The others, except Lucas, sat down on the seats, exhausted from running around all day, trying to find their teammate. Then the green ranger came into the room, holding a stack of short cardboard boxes, on further inspection, they all had pictures of an Italian chef snapping his fingers.

"Who wants pizza?" He asked with a happy tone, bringing the stack in. He was met with cheering from the others as he set them down and they all dug in.

"A good meal for a rather exhausting day." Alex said, the others all agreed as they ate.

[Steam Force]

In a sleazy bar, in the Russian wilds, Many burly men cheered in merriment as a rather muscle bound man had his arm planted into the table and a rather suave man took a shot of his whiskey.

The man spoke with a German accent. "Anyone else up to it?" He asked in a mocking way, placing his glass back down. Nobody stood up to the challenge. "No? Ah well, let's just be merry then. Bartender, three more rounds!" He called, met with cheering from the drunken Russians.

One walked up to the man. "You sir are an inspiration! What's your name?" He asked in his strong Russian accent.

"The name is Welkin Stross my friend." Welkin told him as he received a pat on the back.

"Nice to meet you Mr. Stross!" He told him in a cheery tone.

Stross smirked as he took another drink. After a job well done, it was always nice to be merry in a bar and share out what he could spare of his pay check.

|Steam Force|

 **That is chapter 5 of Steam Force. It gave a lot of insight into Ayana's background and her motives, while building a friendlier relationship between TJ and Ayana. My main aim was to make it as real as I could, plus I left a really subtle hint of something that'll be brought to light later on. As for the ending, that ties into the next chapter. Thanks for reading as always**

 **Next Chapter: The Amazing adventure of Welkin Stross**

 **Synopsis: We leave Vicdon and the Steam Force rangers for a chapter and follow Welkin Stross on one of his adventures to see what he's doing when he isn't helping the rangers, less of a character focus and more of a funny chapter. Next time on Power Rangers: Steam Force!**


	9. The Amazing Adventure Of Welkin Stross

Power Rangers: Steam Force

Ch6: The Amazing Adventure of Welkin Stross

 **Note - This is an extremely silly chapter for Steam Force and nothing is meant to be taken seriously, primarily why I chose to format this like a 50s radio show, That said, let the craziness begin!**

Narrator - "You're listening to The Amazing Adventures of Welkin Stross! Today's episode 'In Soviet Russia'" The narrator paused as an old instrumental theme played. "Our Hero, Welkin Stross has travelled to Russia to deal with Bulrik, the villainous communist commander, and retrieve a special power core from the brute, he finds himself in a remote Russian bar, a hangover from the night before." The narrator finished as Welkin Stross woke up, holding his head.

Stross - "Wow, those Russians really know how to party." He said in his German accent as he got up, using a toppled over table beside him to aid in his accent.

Narrator - "Suddenly Welkin heard the smashing of bottles in the back and went to investigate. When he got there, he found a Spetsnaz assassin brandishing a long blade of sorts who froze when he saw the suave German pilot."

Stross - "Looks like you missed the party, comrade." Stross said in a sarcastic manner.

Assassin. "Silence fool!" He yelled out running at Welkin with his blade pointed at the hero.

Narrator - "Stross proceeded to dodge the blade he was being attacked with before bringing his radial morpher up and pressing down on it.

Stross - "Ready for takeoff!" He called and morphed into his ranger suit.

Narrator - "As the assassin came in with a stab at the ranger, Stross countered with his vambrace wing blades and caught the soldier off guard. With one swift punch, the assailant was on the ground and the roguish hero stood above him with a cocky smile printed on his face!" The narrator exclaimed in excitement.

Stross - "So tell me what were you doing here and why are you trying to kill me?" He asked, stamping on the assassin's chest with his boot.

Assassin - "I carry out orders… For commander Bulrik… I have failed…" He informed welkin who left the assassin to his regret, stopping to take one last drink before heading out of the bar.

[Steam Force]

Narrator - "Welkin stood outside the wooden bar in the middle of the wilderness and gave a high pitched whistle before an engine came to life, he smiled brightly as his zord, the wing straffer literally drove through and destroyed the treeline as he jumped into it, then it lifted off and took to the skies."

Stross - The ranger was sat in his pilot seat, paying little attention to where the zord was going, but he was flicking through a pile of letters that he picked up. "Let's see here… Medical bills… Notes from angry ex's… Another letter from the Nigerian Prince… Ah, here we go!" He exclaimed as he picked out a letter from Lohan. "Looks like those crazy kids have been up to no good again, seems Ayana nearly broke TJ's arm!" He laughed to himself as he read through the rest of the letter. "That was fun. I'll have to get back some time, they seem pretty unstable without me." He joked to himself as he turned his attention back to where he was going in his zord.

[Steam Force]

Narrator - "Meanwhile, at the evil Soviet secret base." The narrator monologued.

Bulrik - He was a hardy stereotypical Russian. He wore a black fur cap with a red star at the front and wore extremely bulky power armour, almost like he had ripped a tank apart and was wearing it. Attached to the suit was the ammunition belt with a large minigun on the other end. "Soon enough, my plans to bring civil unrest to the democratic nations will be complete. And you will be its first victim." He said confidently to a tied up young woman with a bag over her head. Then the brute pulled it off.

Young Woman - "My father will not have this Bulrik, My country will not stand for this!" She spat. Bulrik shook his head.

Bulrik - "Oh yes he will, Miss Ambassador's daughter. While I have you, I have complete control over him." Bulrik laughed maniacally as his captives struggled against her restraints.

Narrator - "Oh no! Looks like our hero has bigger problems than just defeating Bulrik, there's a damsel in distress and a bigger plan at work. Can our friend overcome it? Stay tuned for more from The Amazing Adventures of Welkin Stross!" He sounded off as some 50s era music began playing.

[Steam Force]

Narrator - "When last we left, our roguish hero was in his zord heading for certain danger as Bulrik revealed some of his plan to his prisoner, can our hero save the day? Find out in The Amazing Adventures of Welkin Stross!" He summed up.

Stross - Stross was coming up on a military installation in the frozen setting. "Looks like this is it." He told himself, getting ready to jump from his zord. "Geronimo!" He called, with one quick look down and then he jumped out, freefalling until pulling his parachute out and floating to the bottom. The ranger took a quick look around and noticed several armed guards.

Narrator - "From the looks of things, Welkin's odds of winning are, at the least, ten to one. He's vastly outnumbered. But that doesn't mean outmatched.

Stross - "Ready for takeoff!" He called, morphing into his silver suit. "Now to deal with you fools." He said, emerging and getting the attention of the guards who aimed their weapons at him. Welkin stood there spinning his blaster around.

Narrator - "The guards let out a hail of bullets which our hero quickly avoided the bullets and aimed his own gun at the assailants, blasting as he ran forward. By the time he had reached the first grunt the rest were all on the cold ground, with a left hook, the last of the soldiers hit the ground with a thud. Then Stross headed to a large door."

Stross - "Too easy." He laughed turning his head to the fallen enemies before opening the door and heading in.

[Steam Force]

Narrator - "Stross saw a large missile bay holding devastating weapons as he walked into the enemy base. Then he saw a raised platform where Bulrik and his prisoner were."

Stross - "Looks like He has someone hostage, hopefully it's a pretty young lady I'm saving and not some old fat guy." He joked to himself as he vaulted over the ledge he was looking over to get to them quickly.

Narrator - "Stross now faced Bulrik, the villain had an evil grin on his face.

Bulrik - "Ah, Welkin Stross. I see that you like wearing spandex now." Bulrik laughed, insulting the ranger.

Stross - "Well, it's all the rave in the ranger community, you've gotta get with the times." Stross remarked.

Bulrik - "You don't change." Bulrik told him.

Stross - "I see you do, you look like you're wearing a tank for clothes."

Bulrik - "In Soviet Russia, We Are Tanks!" He commented proudly.

Stross - "I see, still won't stop me from beating you."

Narrator - "Bulrik powered up his minigun and Welkin reached for his pistol. Stross rolled to the side to avoid the hail of rounds being shot at him, when his opponent had to reload, Stross took his chance and blasted the weapon and destroyed it. Bulrik became outraged."

Bulrik - "That's it! Fire the missiles!" He called to some technicians, who obeyed and set the launch protocols. Bulrik ran off to a separate door which was sealed shut after entering.

Stross - He watched as the missiles' engines began to ignite. "This isn't good." He said to himself as he heard a high pitched scream. "Oh, right."

Narrator - "The young woman was attached to a rope which was in turn tied to one of the missiles. With one quick blast, the rope was severed and she fell to the floor.

Stross - "Miss, are you okay?" He asked, taking the bag off of her head.

Young Woman - "Who are you?" She asked, getting up with his help.

Stross - "Welkin Stross, pilot extraordinaire, suave gentleman and power ranger." He announced smugly. "And what is the name of the damsel I just saved.

Young Woman - "Sofia." She said. "If there's anything I can do to repay you."

Stross - He gave a laugh. "I'm sure there's, something, you can do." He said smugly, for that, he got a punch in the gut from Sofia, she had an annoyed look on her face. "Fine, I'll think about it." He said.

Sofia - "And if you ever try it again, it'll be more than a punch in the gut you get." She threatened with her arms folded.

Narrator - "Stross gave a sigh and then remembered the imminent threat, the missiles were still in the sky and there was an opening above them. He gave a whistle to call his zord and grabbed her arm and jumped up as it passed by.

Stross - "Okay Sofia, sit tight. I gotta take out these missiles quickly." HE said, she gave a nod and the ranger took the controls.

Narrator - "The wing straffer flew through the sky, from either side of the cockpit, a machine gun emerged."

Stross - "I'm glad I made these modifications." Stross told himself as he pressed down on the triggers for the machine guns.

Narrator - "It swooped between the weapons above the clouds as a hail of blasts from the zord set the weapons ablaze and forced them to explode in mid-air. When he dropped below the clouds, Stross saw a giant mech, a holographic projection of Bulrik's face was where the head would be.

Stross - "This guy never gives up." Stross sighed as he flew towards it, firing as he did.

Bulrik - "Ha! You think that will defeat me Stross? You're puny zord is no match for Red Prime!" He announced in his communist themed mech known as Red Prime.

Stross - "Oh really? German Piloting is the greatest piloting in the world!" He called, heading straight from the mech. blasting it with full force. Before he collided with it, Stross pulled up and opened up the hatch doors for a bombing run. "It's time for you to feel the force!" He called as the bombs dropped out and lit the mech up with numerous explosions.

Narrator - "Before the mech was destroyed, Bulrik escaped and shook his fist at the ranger and his zord.

Bulrik - "I'll get you next time Stross!"

[Steam Force]

Narrator - "The wing straffer touched down near a lavish mansion and Stross and Sofia exited the zord. Welkin demorphed and turned to her."

Stross - "What an adventure. Well then, I'll be off now." He said, turning to the door. He felt a tug at his arm.

Sofia - "You're leaving?" She asked, surprised he was going so soon.

Stross - "Yeah, I have somewhere to be." He said, she turned him around. "I'll come back, at some point."

Sofia - "You better do." She told him, leaning in and kissing him.

Stross - After a few minutes, he finally finished. "I'll see you soon Sofia." He waved as he got in the zord and set off. Inside he gave a sigh. "Hopefully she doesn't get angry and come after me like some other women have, sometimes I think my irresistibility is a curse." He laughed.

Narrator - "Once again, our hero, Welkin Stross has saved the day, got the girl and won against his nemesis Bulrik. What's next for our adventurer? Find out next time on The Amazing Adventures of Welkin Stross!"

General Lohan sat reading over the pages of written content. He gave a sigh. "This is really what happened?" Lohan asked, looking skeptical.

"Sure it is, well more or less. So what do you think, is it good enough to be on Vicdon Radio?" Stross asked, sitting across from the General.

"If this was the 50s, sure." Lohan sighed. Stross gave a laugh.

"Maybe next time. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to deliver a panda to a Cartel boss." Stross said, getting up and leaving.

"What is wrong with that guy?" Lohan questioned after the ranger left.

|Steam Force|

 **That is the sixth chapter of Steam Force over and done with, now for the most part, it was a script about one of Stross' wacky adventures, but was it real, or just Stross telling an extremely unlikely story? Well I'll leave you guessing with that. The actual story was written in a way that it would be like a 50s propaganda radio show and it was fun to make. Next time its back to more character focuses, only three more to go.**

 **Little announcement, this week is my half term break for college so I'll be able to put a bit more content than usual on, probably anyway. It gave me more time to write this chapter too since I've had my fair share of distractions lately.**

 **Next Chapter - Filthy or Rich**

 **Synopsis: It's the white ranger's turn for family drama as finally her parents have found her. It would be absolutely fine, except they're the reason she lived and worked in a garage for years. Can she finally come to terms with who she is and still live an independent life, Will she forgive them or will things be a lot more complicated than that, especially when the Terrasoids are wreaking havoc at the same time. Find out next time on Power Rangers: Steam Force.**


	10. Filthy or Rich

Power Rangers: Steam Force

Ch7: Filthy or Rich

On a relatively cool day, our six heroes were training hard in preparation for another attack from the Terrasoids. TJ and lucas were sparring, while Ayana and Mia sparred. Lloyd was sitting watching waiting for his turn while Alex was sat down tinkering with a watch. Lohan entered the room with a small note in his hand and headed over to the white ranger sat down.

"Alexandria, this note arrived earlier. I don't know who it's from or what it's about, but since it was addressed to you, perhaps you might be able to understand it better than me." He told her. Alex looked up and put the watch down on the table before taking the closed note from Lohan and looking at its contents.

Her eyes widened as she looked at the note. "No, not now!" She said, crumpling it up and then throwing the piece of paper to the ground.

After that she ran out of the building. The other rangers stopped what they were doing and walked over to where she had been. TJ knelt down and picked up the crumpled note.

"Any idea what that was about?" Ayana asked the others who shrugged.

"I think I know." TJ said, straightening out the piece of paper and looking at it. "It's the insignia of the Rhodes family. While they're less influential than my family, they one of the few notable upper class families in the city." He explained.

"Why would Alex be receiving a note from them with only their insignia?" Lloyd asked.

"Could it be that she's one of them?" Ayana theorised.

"You're right. While the rest of you don't know this, her full name is Alexandra Rhodes, only child of the current Mr and Mrs Rhodes. I don't know the full story, but some years ago she left her home, ended up in the work district fixing things. From there I know nothing." He explained to them.

"I remember hearing about something like this. A noble girl getting in a row and running away from home. The authorities eventually gave up but the parents always wanted to take her back home. my dad said it was about 'preserving the noble bloodline' something that I wouldn't understand according to him. Which I don't because all of it is just old traditions that are best left in the past." He told them.

"While we like you ranting about your folks most of the time, this is hardly the time for it. We need to find Alex. Any clue where to start?" Lloyd interrupted.

Everyone gave a blank look as they tried to think of something. The silence was broken as they heard footsteps and saw two people heading towards them.

One of them was a well dressed man in his early forties while the other was a woman in her late thirties. they had similar features to Alex. They approached the group with a curious look.

The man spoke up. "I heard I could find my daughter here, I heard this from a reliable source, yet she isn't here, I highly doubt that I was lied to, but where is Alexandria? Did you cretins do something to her?" He asked in a posh accent.

"Mr. Rhodes, all respect given, you aren't allowed to be here, this is a military operations center and it isn't open for any civilian to enter, no matter how influential they might be." Lohan told the upperclassman, attempting to convince him to leave. Ayana stifled a laugh.

"Please, don't give me that, you let civilian teenagers in here without a second thought. I doubt there is any pure blood in any of these fiends, so tell me where I can find my child now!" He mocked, ordering Lohan around.

Lloyd whispered to TJ. "We need to stall for time, can you do that?"

"Sure can, leave Ayana here as backup, the rest of you can go." He told the red ranger. TJ walked over to Ayana. "Listen I'm gonna stall them while the others go, your staying behind in case things get ugly." TJ said, she folded her arms.

"As long as I get to punch one aristocrat today, I'll be happy to." She said, cracking her knuckles.

TJ gulped at the premise as the two rangers walked towards Alex's parents as the other four rangers snuck out to find their friend.

"It's a pleasure to meet you Mr and Mrs Rhodes." TJ said in a formal manner. "I am... Tobias Jones." He introduced with his made up name.

[Steam Force]

Queen Nyllia stood in another part of the hive, an organic arena/pit of some sort. Once more, Kivo had aged, only by a couple of years yet all of that emotion he had before was now gone. His body was beaten, bruised, his clothing now ragged. Around him were a group of four bipedal crab like creatures, snapping their pincers.

Stinger was stood beside his queen. "Prove your worth Kivo! Defeat my elite soldiers with nothing but your weapon and the skills you have learned!" He challenged the boy.

Kivo nodded and had a focused look now. He flipped around his staff and charged at the first one. The creature opened its pincer and as the boy swung his staff, the creature caught it. Yet Kivo didn't flinch. He used is unnatural strength to pick up the crab-like creature using the staff and throw it into the others there. Kivo approached the fallen monster and lunged his staff into the face of the creature. It let out a horrifying shriek and went limp.

The other three got up and advanced on him. He charged forward and vaulted over them, swinging his staff around and connecting with its head, sending it into the arena wall. The remaining two span around to meet their opponent. Kivo ran at the one closest and vaulted into the air, as he descended, he readied to kick. The creature held up its arms in defence, but it was nothing. Kivo made impact and forced the monster to the ground, where it met the same fate as the other two.

The final crab monster was outraged and headed towards Kivo in fury. The boy was still focused, yet he held up no guard as the monster closed in on him. With the space between them becoming dangerously small, kivo stuck out his staff. The Monster stopped in its tracks as it became impaled on the weapon. Kivo stuck it in deeper as the monster struggled to keep on its feet. With one swift movement, Kivo tore it out of his opponent, who collapsed to the floor.

With all his opponents defeated, he turned his attention to Stinger and his mother above him. Queen Nyllia turned around and walked away. Stinger gave a nod to the boy before also walking away. Kivo's expression turned from neutral to angry rather quickly and he began to stab the corpse of his fallen enemy with his weapon in outrage.

[Steam Force]

While the other two rangers had gone to other parts of the city to look for their fellow ranger, Lloyd headed to the work district to see if he could find her. As he walked, he came across a garage where a group of burly mechanics were working on a rundown and beat up steam train while a loud radio played in the background.

Lloyd headed up to them as a large burly man came from around the back of the machine in the garage.

"Can I help you?" He asked, looking at the red ranger.

"Yeah, I'm looking for someone, a friend. Maybe you've seen her."Lloyd confirmed to the man.

"Give me a name and I might be able to help you." He told Lloyd, examining the young man.

"Alex Rhodes." He said, the man gave a smile.

"So you're one of the little bird's new teammates then. My name is Hawk, Alex was the boss here till this whole crisis began. I gave her the advice to make her own path and she took it. May I ask what your name is?"

"It's Lloyd, Lloyd Moon. Now that we have that out of the way, could you tell me where Alex is, she ran out after seeing a note that was from her parents. She looked distraught." He asked Hawk.

"Sure, While I don't know where she is, I have a good idea where she'll be. Ever since our boss before her died, almost two years ago now, every time she gets into an altercation with her parents, she heads to his grave. Usually they keep their distance though, but this time, it's different. Make sure you find her and help her, she should be able to spread her wings freely and not be chained down like her parents want." He informed the red ranger.

"I see, thanks Hawk, I'll try talk to her." He said waving as he went off.

After Lloyd did so, another mechanic came up to Hawk. "Hey boss, did you scare another one off with your bird analogies? You've really gotta stop doing that."

Hawk laughed. "There can never be enough bird analogies, right then, I think it's time to get back to work on revamping this train."

[Steam Force]

TJ's attempt at stalling was going well as he told them a very aristocratic story. "So then I said, get away from me and get a job you filthy beggar!" The two parents gave snooty laughs as he finished the joke, Ayana grumbled and TJ whispered to her. "Sorry about this, but these ARE the bad kind of rich people, I don't mean anything by what I say."

She whispered back. "You better not, otherwise I'm gonna be punching more than one dandy in the face when this is over." Ayana threatened.

[Steam Force]

Lloyd walked through the empty graveyard, scanning for Alex when he saw a female figure knelt down beside a grave with her head lowered.

He approached without her noticing, that was until he stepped on and snapped a twig which alerted the young woman to his presence. Alex turned her head to see Lloyd.

"oh, it's you. How'd you find me?" She asked, her voice monotone.

"One of your old friend's Hawk, he let me know that you come here after you talk with your family. Said it was a good place to start given the circumstances. So, care to explain everything?" He asked, sitting beside her.

Alex gave a sigh before turning to him. "Fine. I was born in the upper class district, I lived there most of my life. When I was growing up, I became interested in the technology and the machines used in the day to day runnings of the city. My parents didn't like this, they wanted to keep me at home, not learn anything and just look pretty so that when I came of age they could auction me off to the slimiest duke they found and be his trophy wife forever. Their ambitions we'ren't mine and I got tired of them telling me what I can and can't do. When I was thirteen, I ran away, any searches for me proved unsuccessful for a while. I was a smart girl and the lower classes look after each other,I convinced them to teach me what they knew and built up my skills. One day I met Griffin and he gave me a shot at fixing an old piece of equipment, kinda like an initiation. When I showed him what I could do, he let me into his crew of mechanics. The same one's you met earlier. He even gave me this tool belt, it's probably the only thing I'm never going to give up." She paused for breath.

"I see, well I'm glad Griffin was a nice guy, I doubt you could've stayed hidden for much longer." He said, she gave a nod.

"Even then I couldn't. Two years later, when I was fifteen, they found me. They wanted me to come back, said they had a whole line of suitors waiting for me. When I refused, they tried taking me back with them by force. Thankfully Griffin and Hawk stood up for me, and Hawk gave my dad a well deserved black eye. They tried to take legal action, but without my word that I was in fact their daughter, they were in the wrong, so we were fine for a while. Every so often I would try to make amends with them but it never ended well, then, almost two years ago,Griffin died of a heart attack. His last wishes were that I take over as boss with the others showing me the ropes of leading our little mechanic group. I tried to see them again but ended badly, they kept pressuring me to come back so they could marry me off since I was nearing eighteen. The last time I saw them was about a month before my birthday. Then they lost contact with me. Now they've found me, I already expect them to be at our base ready to cart me off." She frowned.

Lloyd took all of the information in and looked at her. "Don't worry, you're a ranger now and we stick up for each other right? If they even think about trying anything, we won't let it." He said.

"Thanks Lloyd, we better get back then. I'm done being nice with them, if they want to try and control my life again, well they're gonna get a piece of my mind!" She said, standing up.

"Wait, I didn't mean that you should do that!" He said, scrambling to get up and catch up to her.

When he caught up, she stopped in her tracks as she saw a large bloated fly monster in her way.

"Rangers! I've been looking for you, I'm Blugly and I'm gonna destroy you for my mistress!" The bloated and diseased monster told them.

Lloyd got into a combat stance. "We need to call the others." He told the white ranger.

"Leave this one to me!" She ordered him, he dropped his fists in surprise to his teammates newfound aggression.

"Full Steam ahead!" She called, being enveloped by a bright light as steam began to come from her.

1-0-1 … Shipping … Pipeblade … Arriving

Alex stood with her Pipeblade in hand and charged towards the overweight fly monster.

"Just one of you? This should be easy!" He boasted as the white ranger came closer.

Alex slashed the monster relentlessly without pausing for a second. "This is for making me have to deal with you too! This is because my parents are frustrating me and this one's because I hate Terrasoids!" She yelled as she struck him, every time she did, Blugly yelped in pain.

One her last strike, Blugly seeped out energy and exploded. When the fires settled, the dark spores hit the ground and revived a now giant Blugly.

Lloyd approached Alex. "Now can I get the other rangers to help?" He asked.

She shook her head. "Oh he is so dead!" She called. "White mono rider!" She called and her zord appeared overhead, which she jumped into as it passed.

"White mono rider engaged." She said as she piloted it towards the Terrasoid. "I'm coming for you, you overweight nuisance!"

The mono rider charged forward and began running circles around Blugly. "Hey stop it, you're gonna give me vertigo!" He complained.

"Okay, how about I do this instead!" She yelled, moving the switches around. The mono rider began coiling around blugly.

"Oww my organs!" He complained.

"Lose some weight fatty!" She yelled at the monster as the rider coiled even more and crushed Blugly, destroying him for good.

[Steam Force]

Alex and the others walked in to see TJ almost losing his patience with the two parents. Then they turned around to see their daughter among the rangers.

"Finally, you're here. Now that we've found you, please come along with us. We're getting older by the second and we won't start rich forever you know. We need you to marry into a very special family as soon as possible, you don't want us to end up on the street do you?" Her father told her. The other rangers eyes went wide.

"Really? Really! You haven't seen me in so long and the first thing you think about is your own well being?! What's wrong with you! I've had it up to here with both of your trying to dictate every single aspect of my life! I want to be my own person not some sort of prize some really rich ninny can parade around when he's out so he looks successful! You two need to leave right now before I let loose something you really won't like!" She yelled at them, clenching her fists.

"Nonsense! This time we're not leaving without you and you will accept it!" Her mother yelled back.

Lloyd stepped in front of Alex. "If you want to take her back, you'll have to go through us!" He said as Lucas and Mia backed him up.

"This is ridiculous! I'll have you all arrested for this!" Alex's father told them all.

TJ turned to Ayana. "You said you wanted to hit some rich people. They're all yours." Ayana grinned and clenched her fists.

"I've been waiting all day for this." She said as she swung full on at the unsuspecting man.

Her fist connected with his face and he fell to the floor, blood coming from his cheek where she hit him.

"Ooh that's gonna leave a mark." TJ chuckled.

"You scoundrel! You'll rue the day you assaulted me!" He said as the two parents ran out of the rangers based.

"And don't come back!" Ayana shouted as they scrambled out of the building.

Lloyd turned to Alex. "I'm sorry it didn't turn out too well, or how you expected it to go." He apologised.

"Are you kidding? That went better than expected!" She cheered. "Maybe they'll think twice about trying anything next time, thanks for helping me out everyone."

"What're friends for?" TJ said.

"Punching your parents in the face according to Ayana." Lucas joked as they laughed about the whole ordeal.

|Steam Force|

 **That is chapter seven of Steam force over and done with. This chapter emphasised that sometimes, things don't get resolved and the situation comes back later on. But you've always got your friends to count on to punch your problem in the face. The moral of the story here, at least from my point of view.**

 **As for Kivo, he's becoming a strong and merciless warrior and a bit of a "My mother never loved me" psychopath attitude, that's all for now, and there isn't going to be a Steam Force episode in two weeks time. It is taking a 'break' of sorts but I have something very special planned in its place, which nobody knows about yet, till then.**


	11. Broken Spirit

Power Rangers: Steam Force

Ch8: Broken Spirit

Things had wound down for the rangers in the few weeks since the battle with Ophyoc and fighting with the Mythos rangers. Since then, they've gotten some rest regarding monsters, but the Terrasoid threat still loomed, and soon, these rangers will face a powerful foe.

The rangers were lounging around as it had been a rather sunny day, along with the fumes from the factories in the work district, the whole city was rather hot and there wasn't much for them to do on that particular day. Lloyd sat up on the couch and wiped the sweat from his head, giving the room a look around, he noticed something.

"Hey, anyone know where Mia went?" He asked, realising that there was no sign of the black ranger anywhere.

Ayana gave a yawn and opened her eyes, giving them a rub as she did. She looked like she'd been sleeping for a while and her hair looked really messed up. "W-What's going on?" She said, still yawning and trying to wake up fully.

"Lloyd's asking where Mia went." Lucas informed the weary yellow ranger as he read a magazine, not taking his head up or taking his eyes off of the pages to answer.

Alex walked into the room through the door to the bathroom with a thoughtful expression. "Hey, anyone else seen Mia today? She wasn't here this morning and I haven't seen her anywhere today, anyone got a clue where she is?" She asked as she took a seat on the couch between Lloyd and Ayana.

Lloyd thought on it a bit. "I've got no clue, she's always been really private and shut off. Even though she's our teammate, she's the friend we least know about." Lloyd paused. "Maybe TJ has some insight into this?" He finished.

Ayana gave a mildly annoyed look as she pointed to the chair nearest the couch, TJ was curled up on the cushioned chair, arms wrapped round a pillow,head resting on it.

Lloyd approached and poked him to try wake him up. "Hey, TJ, get up. We need your help."

It had no effect the sleeping blue ranger, except to cause him to talk in his sleep. "No… Keep away… It's my marshmallow…" Lloyd stepped back, he was clearly weirded out by TJ's sleep talk.

Ayana gave a sigh and grabbed a glass of water and poured it over TJ's head, causing the blue ranger to snap awake and jump from the sudden disturbance of his sleep.

"Hey what was that for!?" He asked as he regained his bearings.

"Well you weren't waking up." Ayana gave a sadistic smile as she looked back on what she did. Getting to do that to an upperclassman, even if he was her friend, it still gave her quite the thrill.

"Anyways, we need your help with something." Alex said, jumping in before anything could happen.

[Steam Force]

Within the Terrasoid hive, Queen Nyllia sat upon her throne. At the foot of the raised area that her throne resided knelt two individuals. One was Stinger, while the other was Kivo. Yet again the boy had aged, he now appeared to be a 16 year old teenager and wore some light and simple leather armour pads overlaying torn clothing.

Stinger broke the silence in the room. "My Queen. I have almost readied Kivo for his duty, yet there is one key thing I must teach him if he is to become the champion of the hive. Yet in order to do so, I would have to sacrifice yet another opportunity to destroy the rangers."

Queen Nyllia arose from her seat and ran her fingers through her long black hair. "I see. Take him with you, if he is to one day surpass us, he needs experience choosing creatures to destroy the humans. Let him pick the monster. If he chooses poorly, show him why. That will be all." She ordered, nearing the bottom of the sloped area before the two of them.

"As you wish." Stinger responded as the two stood up and left to begin preparations.

The Terrasoid Queen watched them as they left. As the two reached the exit of the throne room, Kivo glanced back to see that the Queen had turned away and was now heading back to her throne. He gritted his teeth and clenched his fists as he turned back and left the throne room.

Within the holding area of the Terrasoid hive, there were numerous unique monstrosities. Kivo and Stinger walked among them as they looked for a suitable candidate.

Then the young champion saw one. It appeared to be themed off of a scorpion, it had two heavily armoured legs, yet they were exposed at the back where they looked like sticks. It had two sets of arms, the lower pair seemed to be composed of a poison gland and stinger that would usually be on a scorpion's tail. Yet the upper arms were thicker and were armed with two lethal pincers. Set into its body was a small face with small feelers and a small mouth with sharp gleaming teeth, a yellowish fluid dripping from its mouth.

"This one." Kivo said in an angry tone. Stinger came closer and eyed it up, looking closely at its capabilities and armament, his antenna twitching as he did so.

"Wise decision, boy. This one is deceitful and I'm sure it'll devastate those rangers if it gets its hands on them." Stinger then turned to the scorpion themed Terrasoid. "You! What is your name?" He demanded.

The Terrasoid's feelers moved around as it spoke. "I am Venomtori, commander of poison, at you service." Is answered, kneeling as it did.

[Steam Force]

The rangers had split up to scour the city, yet again, for one of their teammates. Lucas headed out on his own to find her, knowing the back alleys best, whilst Lloyd was looking through the upper class district and TJ was checking the low class areas for any sign of her. Ayana and Alex had the least exhausting job of all, staying in the operations station and waiting to see if she showed up there if the other rangers found her, there was two to make sure she didn't run off or do anything violent with them, like others had done, beforehand.

"It's kinda ironic that they kept us here to keep her from doing something stupid, we're the one's that did that stuff. Maybe they think we might do something like that again." Alex suggested as the two sat on opposite ends of the couch in the middle of the operations station.

Ayana gave a grunt and turned away from the white ranger. Alex gave a blank look as she wondered what that was about. 'She's not done that before, then again we've not been alone in the same room with each other for a while now. Maybe it's something that happened recently? Well, no use trying to figure it out on my own, might as well ask her.' Alex thought to herself as the girls sat in silence.

"Ayana, something bothering you?" Alex asked, the yellow ranger gave an annoyed groan, which piqued Alex's interest even more. "Did I do something?" She asked in quick succession.

"Fine, I'll tell you. I could handle TJ being from the upper class, but then out of nowhere, you end up being from there too. Maybe Mia will turn out to be like you two next, who knows! By the end of this I bet I'd be outnumbered by the amount of you there are and be left alone again!" Ayana yelled.

Alex was stunned by the sudden outburst from the yellow ranger and had no clue what she was going to say next on the matter. Even if there weren't any other rangers from the upper class, Alex knew how the incidents in the past few months had made quite a divide between a few of the rangers, and it would be hard to repair the damage that was done.

[Steam Force]

Within the education district, which seemed far more modern compared to the rest of the city, Mia sat alone in a small apartment. She removed her shirt to reveal the dragon tattoo on her back, she then placed her hand on it.

'It's been seven years, but I'm not giving up. I'll find them' she thought to herself as she felt a strange presence in the room. Mia quickly put her shirt back on and looked around the room. "Is… Is someone there?" She asked her voice sounding afraid.

For a few seconds there was nothing but silence, then. "I can help you find them." A sinister voice spoke.

Mia was very afraid at this moment. She knew something was wrong, but the offer the sinister voice was making, it was too good to pass up. "H-How?" She stuttered.

"Simple." The voice answered before a figure stepped out of the shadows, revealing that the voice belonged to Venomori. Mia hadn't seen the Terrasoid threat yet and the monster lunged its two stingers on its arms into the black ranger, injecting her with a lethal poison.

Mia turned around in shock to see the Terrasoid standing before her with a sinister grin. Her vision became blurry as she collapsed to the floor and her body went limp.

"Goodbye ranger!" Venomori chuckled as he left to black ranger to the poison.

[Steam Force]

Lucas walked along the streets of the education district, where things were getting busy due to the time of day. As he searched through the civilians for any signs of Mia, his morpher beeped and he stopped after it caught his attention.

"What's going on?" He asked, pulling it up to his face.

TJ's voice came through the speaker. "Just talked with Lohan and we think we might have a lead on where Mia is. Unfortunately there's another issue. There's an attack on the other side of the city. We're heading to the site now. She has a small apartment near to where you are, shouldn't be too hard to find. Get her back and get down here." The blue ranger informed him.

"Understood." Lucas confirmed before keying off the communicator on his morpher.

After a few minutes of searching the nearby apartment building, Lucas noticed that one of the doors was open slightly, and the lock was broken off. He entered to see Mia on the floor, almost lifeless in appearance.

He rushed over and knelt down. Tapping her to see if she would wake, yet unfortunately that wasn't the case. He lifted her up and placed her arm over his shoulders and supported the rest of her body with his other arm. "I better get you back. Hopefully whatever it was that happened isn't serious." He said as he walked, almost carrying the unconscious ranger.

[Steam Force]

The remaining four rangers arrived on the scene of the reported attack to find the area ransacked and no sign of any monsters. The area looks like it had suffered from an attack recently but other than that, there was no trace of the Terrasoids. Then Alex saw someone out cold lying on the ground.

"Guys, over here!" She called rushing to the unconscious man on the ground, soon followed by the other rangers.

Lloyd looked the man over to find that he had been stung with an impossibly large stinger for anything natural. "This isn't good. Looks like there's some monster going around stinging people. He's still alive for now, but we need to get on top of this. I'll call it in. TJ, get a hold of Lucas and let him know the situation. This could get worse if we don't find this monster." He ordered.

TJ nodded as Ayana and Alex lifted the man up and Lloyd went to call Lohan about the situation. "Lucas, you there? We have a problem."

"It's bigger than you think." The green ranger replied.

[Steam Force]

Back at the operations station, the five rangers were sat down waiting for any word from Lohan after handing Mia and the other victim over to him. They'd been taken to an off site facility so they could recover properly.

Ever since earlier on, since her conversation with Ayana, Alex had been on edge and TJ had noticed there was something on her mind. He sat down next to the white ranger and turned to her.

"Something up? You look like something's troubling you." TJ asked her. Alex broke her chain of thought and looked at him.

'I shouldn't say anything. I know it affects us as a team, but it's not me who needs to tell the others. Ayana needs to do it herself. Whatever reasons she has, they're hers and I shouldn't do anything to force it out.' She thought to herself, deciding to go with a lie.

"Oh, I- Uh… I was just thinking about something. Its nothing, don't worry." She told him in response, stuttering a bit as she said so.

Before anything else was said, an alarm went off in the ranger base, calling them to action.

"Looks like whatever that thing is, is back. We better get there before it has a chance to disappear again." Lloyd told them as the rangers got up and raced out of the building to deal with the Terrasoid threat.

[Steam Force]

The morphed rangers arrived to find Venomori standing over an injured citizen. There was fear in the eyes of the civilian as Venomori loomed over them.

"All I need for your wish to come true is one little sting. Then you can find your lost loved ones, and be with them, for eternity." The last two words of the Terrasoid were dark as a sinister look spread across the creature's face.

"Stop right there!" TJ called, which got the attention of Venomori.

"Ah, rangers. I've been waiting for you. But you seem to be missing a member. It seems my venom worked better than first thought on you humans. So come at me, I'm sure you're no match!" Venomori called out.

"You're the reason one of our friends is missing is out of action. I knew it. You're gonna pay for everyone you've hurt today!" Lloyd burst out, startling the others with his aggression.

Armed with a pipeblade, Lloyd rushed in and began to bash recklessly at Venomori, who simply endured the attack before knocking Lloyd to the ground in front of the other rangers with his large pincer arms.

"I knew you were a bunch of worthless pathetic humans, just like your friend. And soon you'll join her."

[Steam Force]

Inside what looked like an old hospital wing, Mia awoke from her comatose state, looking around, her eyesight returned and she saw Lohan sat at her bedside.

"Good you're awake. There isn't much time, I need you out in the field ASAP. The situation isn't looking good. Can you fight?" He briefed.

She waited a few seconds before answering, still hesitant while she spoke. "I- think I can."

"Good. We managed to get an anti-venom to counteract the effects of the Terrasoid that's been attacking, but we can't afford anyone else to be stung, otherwise they might not make it. But I have a plan to stop this thing." Lohan explained to Mia.

[Steam Force]

Back on the battlefield, the outcome wasn't looking well, any time a ranger would try to attack with either a pipeblade to deal a physical attack or a steam blaster to deal and energy attack, Venomori would shrug it off, like he was bred to counter their weapons. One thing was clear, his armour was too thick for their current arsenal, with him not even compromised, their finisher might not even work. The only thing they could do is hold out and wait for aid.

Lloyd rolled out of the way as Ayana was thrown into the others and used his steam blaster to try and hit Venomori in the face. The large armoured claw guarded the face of the Terrasoid and Venomori chuckled.

"Now you see. There is no way you can get through armour as thick as this." Venomori boasted. "But don't worry, you'll be at peace soon enough" A dark smile once again came across his face as the others slowly got up.

"It's no use. We need to get out of here now." Alex told the others as she held her arm.

A voice came from behind the rangers. "You don't need to worry." They turned to see Mia walking towards them, in an instant she morphed and held her head high. The others were relieved to see her alive.

She quickly dialled twice into her morpher.

1-0-1 … Shipping … Pipeblade … Arriving

0-7-3 … Shipping ...Steam Blaster … Arriving

Mia stood with both of the weapons before slotting her pipeblade into the nozzle of the steam blaster, the others looked on to see that the two had fused into a singular weapon.

"Steam Flamer, ready!" She called, aiming it at Venomori as she took steps toward the Terrasoid.

"I told your friends that their weapons wouldn't work, don't make me laugh." Venomori grinned as his feelers moved around.

"This was designed with you in mind." Mia said as she got within range, pulling the trigger, the air in front of her was lit up by a stream of flames which ht Venomori and scorched his armour.

Venomori jumped back as his exoskeletal shielding melted and he was left defenceless. "This can't be happening. I was made to destroy not to be destroyed" He groaned.

Mia stopped firing and stepped in line and looked at the others. "You guys want to have a go?" She asked, sounding more confident.

They gave nods, excited about the new weapon. Each of the rangers summoned their Pipeblades and Steam Blasters before connecting them together and aiming them at Venomori.

"On your mark, Mia." Lloyd told the black ranger looking at her.

"Okay… Six!" Mia called, beginning the countdown.

"Five!" Alex followed on.

"Four!" Ayana confirmed.

"Three!" Lucas said.

"Two!" TJ exclaimed.

"One!" Lloyd finished.

"Furnace burst!" They all called together.

"Incinerate!" Mia called out as each pulled the trigger and unleashed a burst of flames from their weapons, engulfing Venomori.

When the flames subsided, all that was left was ash, until the dark spores arose from the remains of the Terrasoid and reanimated him as a giant.

"Red express rider engaged!"

"White mono rider engaged!"

"Blue speed rider engaged!"

"Green tram rider engaged!"

"Yellow bus rider engaged!"

"Black passenger rider engaged!"

"Coupling zords! Steam Titan Megazord engage!" They called as the several zords came together to form their megazord. Finally, the head popped up from the body, sporting the steampunk conductor's hat and the Megazord was complete. "Steam Titan Megazord ready!"

Although he was reanimated, Venomori still suffered from the burns inflicted before and his armour was diminished. "If I'm going out, I'll take you with me!" He yelled, charging in and clamping down on the Megazord's arms with his pincers, immobilizing the Titan. With his stinger arms, he lunged into the chassis of the Megazord, attempting to puncture the hull.

With a swift kick from the megazord, Venomori was knocked back and they were now free. Then the rangers readied to finish off the Terrasoid.

"This is for everyone you've tricked and hurt with your Venomous words!" Mia exclaimed as Venomori got up.

"Max Speed! Collision Strike!" They announced as the megazord increased its velocity, lifting off of the ground and leveling out horizontally before dealing two powerful propelled punches on Venomori which obliterated the Terrasoid.

[Steam Force]

The team were gathered around in their seating area after the battle. Lucas looked at Mia, still running his head over what the monster had been talking about.

"So, care to tell us what happened, why you were gone, why that monster got the better of you?" He asked, then Mia froze up.

Alex could see she was scared after Lucas came out with that. "It's okay, we're not gonna judge you." She reassured.

Mia was more relaxed now and took a deep breath. "He was promising help to me to find my parents, he caught me off guard and… and he got me." She explained to them.

Still needing elaboration, Lloyd jumped in. "What happened to your parents for it to come to that, did something happen today that made this come on?"

"It was seven years today. We were on our way to our summer house not too far from here. We were caught up in a horrible storm. Our car was sent off of the road and down the hillside. It rolled for a while and I was knocked unconscious. When I woke up…" Tears began to form in her eyes as she remembered the tragic memory. "My twin brother… Akira… He- Died, I wasn't even allowed to say goodbye, I never got to see him again…" Tears rolled down her face as she sobbed. Lucas put a reassuring arm round her. "My parents… They were gone when I woke up. To this day I've never found them. Ever since then, I've been on my own..." She said, still crying.

The other rangers couldn't believe such tragedy. It was a tough time for her, and they now knew why she was so shut off. All they could do is comfort her until the pain subsided and try to help her through the depression it was causing her.

Lloyd was thinking about something before looking at her with a reassuring smile. "Don't worry, you're not alone any more. We might fight amongst ourselves sometimes, and we're by no means perfect, but we stick together through the good and bad times. And together, we're gonna find your family." He told her. A faint smile came across her face as tears rolled down her cheeks.

[Steam Force]

Within the Terrasoid hive, Stinger knelt before Queen Nyllia. "My Queen. It's Kivo, I believe he is ready." Stinger informed her.

Nyllia gave a maleficent smile at the Terrasoid commander. "Good. Then the next phase of my plan begins. Keep training him for now. I have other matters to see to… Personally."

|Steam Force|

 **That is chapter 8 finished. We've delved into the tragic past of Mia and the rangers have a new weapon to fight the stronger Terrasoids with. And Queen Nyllia has a devious plan for the next chapter to close off the character focus arc.**

 **I've been busy with coursework as it's close to the next deadline for my current units so updates will be slow but I'll try to get out 2 chapters per week if possible. Primal Protectors will also be out next week, it'll probably be at the start of may though and one of the other stories will be next week too. The good news is, after this next month I'll be finished with all my coursework, hopefully, and be off college till the end of the summer so I'll have more time for writing. Now if you'll excuse me I have to go catch up on a lot of reading.**

 **Next Chapter: Into the Hive**

 **Synopsis: We look at Lloyd's past and find out more about the projects that led to the creation of the steam and clockwork morphers. Unfortunately, the red ranger's father and his lab team have been kidnapped by Queen Nyllia and taken to the Hive for an unknown reason. The rangers mount a vital rescue mission to make sure that the future of Vicdon isn't in jeopardy and in the process, learn of the leader of the Terrasoid leader and a new contender much like them that could in time destroy them completely. Next time on Power Rangers: Steam Force.**


	12. Into the Hive

Power Rangers: Steam Force

Ch9: Into the Hive

It was evening in the city of Vicdon. The moon shimmered in the starry sky and the usual nightlife populated the city. Within a lab, situated in the Upper Class district of the city, a group of scientists were working frantically as usual. Blueprints for what appeared to be a large clock tower and other clock themed schematics dotted the workstations along with an array of different sized gears and cogs.

A man in his mid-forties with medium length dark hair and a rough beard, wearing a labcoat, his eyes tired with dark circles around them stood tinkering with a small device.

The working of the scientist was interrupted as they heard the smashing of glass in the room. A scientist had dropped a box containing vacuum tubes onto the ground causing them to smash. The cause of this incident was the reason the scientists were currently petrified.

Entering the room was a squadron of drones along with three of the crablike Terrasoids Kivo had faced in his trials. However they were the least of these scientists worries. Striding through the room as any royalty would do in the presence of peasants, Queen Nyllia looked at the scientists with a menacing stare.

"I come looking for a Dr. Moon. If he is not turned in to me, then I shall extinguish every last one of your pitiful lives until he is given to me."

The aforementioned scientist pocketed the device he had been tweaking and stepped up to the Terrasoid Queen. "That's me." He announced.

Nyllia motioned with her hand and a couple of the Drones who walked up and grabbed his arms. "You're going to help me with a trivial matter, doctor." She told him.

"I need my team and my equipment." Dr. Moon informed her, trying not to show any fear in the current situation.

"Very well. Grab everything!" She replied, ordering her minions around.

[Steam Force]

Morning came quickly and the rangers woke to an alarm sounding throughout the operations station. Lazily, and reluctantly, the six rangers shambled over to the control room, eyes half open and still in their nightwear.

Lohan was already awake and sharp as ever. He wore his usual military uniform and wore a stern expression on his face. "Rangers, we have a very dire situation on our hands. Dr. Moon is a scientist in charge the steamworks project. The man responsible for your morphers and the currently missing clockwork morpher. If you make it back, which I'm counting on, I'll explain that to you. For now all you need to know is this. Before you became power rangers, there was another. Aham, he commanded the military till I was forced to come out of retirement. I gave him the clockwork morpher and he descended into the hive of the Terrasoids, back before we knew how much of a threat they were. I lost radio contact with him and both him and the device are presumed missing. I believe, somehow, they got the information needed to make that morpher work for them and have taken the doctor to achieve this goal."

"We're going in then right?" Ayana observed.

"Correct. We need you to halt their plans and bring Dr. Moon back. As for the morpher, recover it if you can, if not, destroy it, you can't let them have it, otherwise we're all in trouble."

"Don't worry Lohan, and if Aham's still alive after all this time, we'll find him and save him." TJ reassured the old man.

"I appreciate it rangers, he was- is a good friend. I'd hate for him to stay behind. Now, move out." Lohan ordered.

The rangers headed to get changed into their usual outfits when Alex noticed Lloyd looking a little distant. "Hey, something up?" She asked, which piqued the interests of the others who also gathered around.

"Well since you're all here, it's best I tell you. What Lohan said back there, brought back memories, some weren't good but others were quite useful." He told them.

"You don't have to tell us if you don't want to." Lucas interrupted. Lloyd gave a sigh and put on a brave face.

"It's fine. I'll tell you. Dr. Moon is my dad. I didn't know how to react, hearing that he was kidnapped, but it brought back what happened around eight years ago, at the beginning of the steamwork project. My older brother cared for me when my parents were off on business, which I wasn't allowed to know about given the whole situation we're in now because of it. During a school camping trip that my brother was on, one day… He was hiking by a fast moving river rapid and he slipped and was carried off… Everyone looked for him, all we found was this." Lloyd held up his red jacket as he began to tear up, however he shook it off and carried on. They confirmed him dead, but his body was never found. Earlier that day he was saying how dad acted like he was hiding something. A few weeks later after more than enough incidents, I followed him to his lab and saw what he was working on. At first I didn't get it, but then, what I saw was terrifying." LLoyd was about to continue before Lohan interrupted.

"Rangers, you need to get moving now. Time isn't on our side." The old general ordered.

"I'll fill in the rest later." Lloyd told them as they hurried to get ready and move out for a confrontation with the Terrasoids, however this time it was on their turf.

Despite this, all the other rangers could really think about was how broken Lloyd was as the rest of them, perhaps even more by the vibe they got from the last part.

[Steam Force]

Within the throne room of the Terrasoid hive, Stinger knelt at the foot of the throne where the Queen sat. "My queen, the scientists are co-operating as intended. So far we have not found any human trespassers, all is well for now." The insectoid commander reported.

She stood up and signalled for him to do so too. "It seems so. It was also useful to keep you around, even after what you did, before I summoned you as Stinger. Your memories are useful, I hope that continues. And it seems your training has paid off. You may not be as you were, but Kivo appreciates the help. And soon enough, he will destroy the rangers for me. Isn't that right?" She said, turning to a shadowed figure.

Out stepped a young man who appeared to be eighteen. He had golden blonde hair that appeared to be just under shoulder length, he had bright green eyes that were overlayed with a yellow glowing tone and he stood at 6'00 exactly with a built up physique. His outfit consisted of a set of jagged plate armour crafted out of what seemed to be bones, this was covered by a tattered grey hooded cloak that would exposed the armour when he moved.

The young man moved towards the throne and knelt before rising. "Yes mother." He spoke, a hint of aggression in his tone as he spoke. This indeed was Kivo, now fully matured and ready to serve Nyllia as he was created to do.

"Now both of you, check on the scientists, make sure they're working properly, and won't destroy the one thing we need to defeat those rangers." She ordered, the two bowed in compliance and then left the room.

[Steam Force]

The rangers stood at the gloomy entrance to the hive which had been fortified since the last incursion there, however no guards were on duty currently.

"It might be a good idea to morph before we get in there." Mia spoke up, being less quiet than usual.

"Good thinking, we might not have enough space otherwise." Lloyd said as they revealed their morphers.

"Full Steam Ahead!" The six of them called out, morphing before proceeding inside.

"Since we have the time, mind telling us more of what you saw?" Lucas asked as they walked through the hive corridors.

Lloy paused and let out a breath of air "Okay then. They were testing with different morphers and abilities. I saw the ones we use work perfectly, then I saw someone use that clockwork morpher and transform into this virtually perfect marksman with incredible evasive ability too. He could even convert that rifle for close quarters combat too, he was quite good. Then came what shocked me. There was a third morpher, it didn't go too well, they said something about it being damaged years before even then and it being unstable. I watched as a subject used it, it went fine for a few seconds,until the electricity surging through it began to spark out of control… it fried the person inside the suit. After that, the project was shut down and it was locked away, until it was needed again. I don't know why Lohan hasn't talked about that thing at all, but I understand why he would want to keep it locked away." He informed them as they made their way into a chamber which contained the scientists.

Kivo and Stinger were conversing with Dr. Moon and numerous Drones were dotted around the room, guarding the scientists as they frantically worked.

"Looks like this is it." Alex said as they halted at the room's entrance.

"Wait something's going down." TJ said as they ducked before the Terrasoids could see them.

Stinger looked at the doctor as his head mounted feelers twitched. "Is the device ready yet?" He asked, looking irritated with the doctor for some reason.

"Yes, we've done as you've asked. Now if you'd please let us go." Dr. Moon begged.

Kivo snatched the repaired clockwork morpher from the hands of the doctor and strapped it to his unarmoured right wrist. "Good. Now kill them, kill them all." He ordered Stinger and the drone guards without a shred of emotion in his words, or knowledge to the weight of his request as he left the room.

"With pleasure!" Stinger enthused as he strode toward Dr. Moon, intent on slaying him. Within no time, he was pinned to the wall where the commander stabbed his large stinger into the man as the drones cut down the panicked scientists.

As quick as they could, the rangers ran out to engage the drones, it was too late to save the scientists, but not too late to save Lloyd's dad. Summoning his pipeblade, Lloyd rushed in and parried away any more blows sent in the way of the doctor before Stinger focused his attention on the red ranger.

"You got in my way just now, that won't happen again." Stinger asserted as he attacked Lloyd.

However, the ranger was angered that Stinger had injured his family. "I'm gonna take you down!" Lloyd roared as he lunged with his weapon, stabbing into the body of his opponent and causing the Terrasoid to collapse from the blow. The red ranger then hurried over and placed his arm around his dad.

"We good here now? This place is starting to give me the creeps." Ayana commented as the rangers finished off the remaining drones in the area.

"What about Aham. We can't just leave him here to rot." TJ said as he looked around the room they were in currently.

Stinger began to chuckle even though wounded. "I *cough* knew that name once. Aham. Captain and clockwork ranger *cough* then he fell at the hands of my queen." He laughed again as he coughed. "Then he was repurposed, reborn."

"What do you mean?" TJ asked, squatting down in front of the monster.

"Now, the one you knew goes by another name. The name of your friend, and now enemy is… Stinger." He told them, laughing as he did.

"T-Then y-you're…H-How?" TJ stammered as he got back up.

Dr. Moon interrupted this as he cleared his throat. "Leave him, we can't do anything for him. We need to get out of here now. They have the clockwork morpher, with that, Vicdon is in more danger than ever."

"Okay… damn…" TJ muttered the last word under his breath as they left, he looked back at the once man now beast one last time before catching up with the others.

[Steam Force]

The six rangers and the injured doctor ran outside of the hive as they were chased by several squadrons of drones that they had encountered on the way.

As the rangers with their hands free shot bolts from their steam blasters, the drones retreated back into the hive to which the rangers celebrated, however, their escape was not over yet.

As the rangers walked away and the doctor thanked them for their efforts in saving him, Kivo stood atop the hive, looking out from high up. "He will not help you. I won't be stopped." Kivo said to himself as he held up his right arm to reveal the morpher. "Clockwork Power!" He called, morphing into the clockwork ranger, donning the same outfit aham had, wielding the very same rifle. Lifting it up to his V shaped helmet, he aimed at the scientist down the scope until Dr. Moon was dead in his sights. Squeezing the trigger, a bolt raced towards the doctor and hit him, causing the man to drop. Kivo simply turned around and demorphed before disappearing into the shadows.

Back on the ground, the rangers rushed over to the fallen man and demorphed at his side. He looked up to see Lloyd looking over him, in distress.

"Lloyd. You're a ranger. I'm so proud you are… I knew you could be..." He smiled as he closed his eyes.

LLoyd began to panic. "Dad, it's okay, we'll get help. Dad? Dad!" He let out as he began to sob over his fallen father.

[Steam Force]

It had been a couple of days since those events, and the others had kept their distance from the red ranger as he grieved in silence. They could see him lashing out on the training dummies and knew they'd have to talk to him about it eventually, however now was not that time.

'It was him who did it. The guy in the robe, who ordered them dead.' He thought as he beat a training dummy with a force full of anger. 'I'm gonna get that guy, and now matter what I'm gonna make him pay!" He said to himself in his head as he landed a spinning kick on the practice dummy that took its head clean off.

|Steam Force|

 **That is chapter 9 completed. Lots of things happened here, we got another tragic backstory, hooray all our rangers are completely broken, it looks like Aham didn't die which I'll be explaining the whole thing behind that in later chapters, Kivo is all grown up, which means no growth acceleration for him, and he has become the second clockwork ranger (I know a few people who guessed this already, curse you, gotta be more subtle next time), how will that fare? Well stay tuned to see. And Lloyd has a vendetta after another family member has died, which is gonna be real interesting in what's to come.**

 **I'm more relaxed this week since I've had no real need to get a move on with college work so I will be getting two, maybe three things out this week, so that's good. This chapter did turn out shorter than expected, but the golden rule of writing is, only write a chapter as long as you think it needs. Enough stalling, here's the next chapter's synopsis and thank you everyone for reading and supporting me and my work, it means a lot.**

 **Next Chapter: Clockwork Power**

 **Synopsis: In our second story arc, the evil clockwork ranger Kivo attacks Vicdon for the first time and deals a serious blow to the rangers. But is he truly evil? Will the rangers be able to do anything against this new threat? Find out next time on Power Rangers: Steam Force.**


	13. Clockwork Power

Power Rangers: Steam Force

Ch10: Clockwork Power

It had been one week since the revelations inside the Hive and the death of Lloyd's father. The young red ranger was in a mix of emotions, anger, sorrow pain, despair. All of it was welling up and none of the rangers could get through to him,

All day when not in action, he was training, training for the one reason he believed he still existed for. To kill him. The others were worried, but had to put up with their leader and his aggression in his time of grief.

The five rangers were sat down in their usual spots while Lloyd worked himself relentlessly, they were discussing what they could do.

"He wants this guy done. I can't say I blame him. He watched helplessly as light died from the eyes of the last person he had left in this world. If anyone fixed this, they'd be a miracle worker." TJ said, offering up no ideas to help the red ranger out.

"Well, if nobody's gonna say it. We should help Lloyd do it. They're clearly not on our side. It helps us out when dealing with the Terrasoids and it gets Lloyd the revenge he needs." Ayana put bluntly, causing a slight conflict in the group.

"Maybe. But what if things are more complicated than that?" Alex suggested.

As they were about to discuss it some more, the alarm sounded and the rangers stood up as Lloyd rushed out to face the new threat. "I guess whatever we decide doesn't matter right now." Lucas added before the rangers ran out to face the threat too.

[Steam Force]

The Vicdon war memorial park was visited often by people of all classes to pay their respects to those who died fighting in World War II overseas and it was rather full as usual, until the Terrasoids attacked. Numerous groups of drones descended upon the people, terrorising them as they did, as chaos erupted all around him, Kivo walked through the park, observing as he did, thinking back to what his mother had said before his mission today.

'These are the sworn enemies of your people, the Terrasoids, they exist only to destroy us and lay waste to our world. They don't love and none of them are innocent. Your job is to go out and make them suffer, in the name of our people.'

Yet from the scouting he had done earlier and the looks of fear in their eyes as the Drones attacked and they attempted to flee, this was most certainly not the case.

"Could it be that mother lied?" He asked himself. But he shook his head. 'I cannot attack anyone who might be innocent. "Pull back for now!" He ordered to the drones, who complied with the same fearful respect that they showed their queen.

However relieved the civilians were, getting away from the drones, all was not settled yet. Kivo turned to see an enraged Lloyd opposite him, seething his anger.

"You." He growled. "You're gonna pay." He added before holding his arm out and pulling back on the lever on his morpher. "Full Steam Ahead!" He called out, morphing quickly and calling on his Pipeblade.

"So you're one of the rangers responsible for causing harm to my people. Finally what I came for." Kivo told the enraged red ranger before revealing his morpher. "Clockwork Power." He said as rotating gears shifted around his body before transforming him into the Clockwork Ranger.

Lloyd rushed at Kivo who pulled out his clockwork rifle. The evil ranger fired off two shots at the ground, but the red ranger kept advancing. Inches before Lloyd connected, Kivo converted the rifle so that the whole weapon became straight and a bayonet type weapon sprung from the side of the weapon, going all the way along it. As Lloyd struck, it was easily parried to the side by the second form of the rifle.

"You're gonna pay for what you did, you monster!" He screamed, striking his pipeblade against the bladed rifle in anger.

"If that is how it shall be, then so be it." Kivo said, understanding how this would end.

The Clockwork ranger's foot came up and kicked Lloyd in the gut, knocking him back a few feet and causing him to stagger. This gave Kivo time to convert his weapon back into a rifle and aim it at the ranger.

"Begone." Was all the evil ranger said before pulling the trigger and sending a blast at Lloyd, which his him square in the chest, sending him flying to the ground as an explosion occurred behind him.

The red ranger demorphed and groaned in pain. Kivo was about to finish him off when multiple shots fired off from behind Kivo, a few of them hitting the evil ranger, yet doing no real damage.

When turning around he saw the other five rangers standing there with their blasters at him, but they froze as soon as they saw the evil ranger.

"An evil ranger. How'd they even get the technology to do that?" Lucas asked, surprised by the ranger foe they were facing.

"He's probably the one who killed Lloyd's Dad." Mia suggested.

"I'd say they got him to fix it and that's what that device was that he took." Alex added, as they got their bearings back.

"Either way he hurt Lloyd. I'm guessing he's planning much worse. Let's take this guy down!" TJ Exclaimed as they switched out their weapons to pipeblades and charged in.

Ayana and Lucas attacked from opposite sides, but even when it was two against one, the rangers didn't seem much of a match. He blocked both with the bladed rifle and suckerpunched Lucas in the head, knocking him to the floor due the superior strength and power behind the punch due to Kivo's Terrasoid abilities. He proceeded to take Ayana down by sweeping her legs out from under her.

Alex and Mia took position a bit further back and switched out to their steam blasters before firing at the evil ranger who dodged them with superhuman agility. He then switched his weapon back into rifle mode before firing at the two rangers, taking them down to the ground.

TJ was now the only one in action as he and Kivo fought with their melee weapons. Using a quick and surprise maneuver, TJ managed to disarm Kivo and knock his rifle away from him. Yet the evil ranger didn't let up. He quickly grabbed ahold of TJ's arm and twisted it till he had him in an arm lock.

"We're gonna stop you, no matter what! We're not gonna let you hurt any more innocents." TJ growled in pain as he was kicked to the ground.

Kivo retrieved his rifle from the ground and targeted the blue ranger. "You don't get it. I only remove those who are a threat to my people, those who attack us openly and unprovoked, like you. Or have the potential to destroy us all, like the man I removed at the hive." He said as he charged up his rifle. "It may not be the best way to handle things, but I exist to protect my people and if that means-" He cut off, dropping his rifle and clasping his head with his hands.

TJ looked over at his injured teammates. 'We can't fight in this condition. Better off getting out of here while we have the chance' He thought, as he got up and began helping the other rangers to their feet before they retreated.

Kivo screamed in agony as he demorphed and collapsed to his knees. "What's happening to me!?" He yelled as his vision became dark and blurry, seeing two flying figures descend as his vision went black.

[Steam Force]

The injured rangers were recovering as TJ recounted what had happened in the fight with the Clockwork ranger to General Lohan.

"He was about to finish me and then the others off, saying we were a threat to his people. Then something happened. He dropped his rifle as he screamed out in agony. We managed to get out of there in time, but we don't know what happened after that." He explained.

Lohan thought over that and the other information he had been given. "All of the Terrasoids we've fought till now have been more or less insectoids. Then someone who looks human shows up, claiming to be a Terrasoid himself. He might believe it, but I don' controlled the Mythos rangers through spores, they could be doing something similar here. Maybe if he can be broken through to, or just kept out in the field long enough for whatever happened out there to be repeated, he could be free."

"It's a thought, but it sounded like being a Terrasoid is all he knows." TJ added, giving a sigh.

"If anything is gonna happen, it's down to him alone. Otherwise, you'll have to think of a way to stop him, permanently." Lohan said, hesitantly.

"I get it, there's some of us that already had that thought. But I hope we don't have to resort to that. From what I heard him say, he sound misguided." TJ finished heading for the exit.

"Sometimes a bit of hope is all we need." Lohan said as TJ departed from his office.

[Steam Force]

Back inside the Terrasoid hive, Queen Nyllia and Stinger were in another chamber. This was a large circular room with a large golden pool of liquid. The two were conversing as the pool simmered away in the centre.

"So Kivo is not like us then? Explain this to me more, my Queen." Stinger asked, to which Nyllia nodded.

"When he was created, it was done from pure human DNA. That was to make him the greatest infiltrator we have at our disposal. When needed, I will us him as such. He was subjected to this pool to combine the abilities of a Terrasoid with his body, but usage of those powers make him deteriorate and causes his body to reject the hivemind. With this he will need to be immersed again after so long. Although it pains me to say this. Our greatest weapon is not a true Terrasoid. But so as long as the boy believes that he is. I can manipulate him to attack the humans." She explained as the golden pool began to bubble.

"Devious, as expected from the mind of your eminence." Stinger praised.

The bubbles began to move towards the edge as Kivo emerged from under the surface of the pool. "I'm back, and ready to take on the rangers once more." He told Queen Nyllia who smirked.

"Then I have another, more important task for you." She informed him as he retrieved his armour.

[Steam Force]

After a day had passed, the rangers had recovered somewhat from the wounds inflicted upon them yesterday. As with today, it seemed like a routine cleanup of a squadron of Drones that were attacking the city. However nothing was ever so simple.

As the six of them finished off the last of the minions. They heard footsteps getting closer and coming from behind them. Upon turning around, they saw him. Kivo stood, hand to morpher.

"We meet again rangers." He said as they all took a defensive stance.

"You don't have to do this you know. I saw what happened earlier. I don't think you're a Terrasoid. They're controlling you. You're a human being, just like everyone else here. That's why you aren't as cold or ruthless as them, why you look exactly like us. You just need to see it." TJ told the evil ranger, trying to talk him down.

"I have my orders. I can't disobey my mother. Clockwork Power!" Kivo called, transforming into the Clockwork ranger once more.

"Then let's go, right here. You're gonna pay for everything!" Lloyd yelled, infuriated.

"I would destroy you now, but I have another mission, try to stop me. If you can." Kivo informed them as he raised the arm with his morpher on to the air. "Watchtower Engage!" He called as the ground shook underfoot.

The rangers, stumbled as the ground shook hard, like an earthquake that was just weak enough not to cause any damage. The six of them were mesmerised as something extraordinary happened. The clock tower, centerpiece of Vicdon began to move by itself. Rising up and beginning a transformation. The lower Half split in two and almost disconnected from the rest of it, then large portions at the base slid out to create legs and feet. From the Back of the Body of the tower folded out arms which slid out two fists from the end of it. The top of the clocktower slid up, revealing a head that was surrounded by gears and cogs turning. If one was high up enough, they would be able to see all the systems of gears turning inside the giant structure. The rod at the top of the tower head detached and through the turning of gears transformed into a sharp bladed clock hand melee weapon. The megazord was now ready as Kivo jumped up high and entered the Megazord.

The inside of the cockpit was pitch black, smoke swirled around the floor as floating gears turned and turned, moving from one side to another as the ticking of a clock kept going in the background. Aside from this,the cockpit was an open space for the Clockwork ranger to move around and fight in, currently he had his weapon in bladed mode.

"That's a…" Ayana said as they looked on at what was stood before them.

"A Megazord." Alex finished as the new Megazords eyes lit up with a red glow.

"Watchtower Megazord ready!" Kivo called from the clocktower themed megazord.

"It doesn't matter." Lloyd said. "No matter what he does, he's going down!" He declared, calling forth his express rider, the others following on shortly to create their own Megazord.

In comparison to the Steam Titan, the Watchtower Megazord was roughly the same size. However the top part gave it a slightly more menacing look that seemed to dwarf their megazord anyway.

The Steam Titan sent it's fist straight into the Watchtower Megazord, the latter sparked a little, but it proved ineffective.

"Okay then, take this!" TJ Called out as he rammed the speed rider foot into the enemy Megazord. Again, more sparks and it staggered the Megazord a slight bit, however, it did hardly anything as well.

"My turn." Kivo said as he thrust forward with his weapon inside the Megazord. The Watchtower did the same, thrusting the clock hand blade into the Steam Titan and causing it to spark and drop to its knees.

The ranger's megazord tried to stand up and fight back, but it was kicked to the ground by the Watchtower Megazord and sparked again. The weapon of the evil megazord transformed into a large version of the clockwork rifle and it was aimed at the chest of the Steam Titan as its foot held the megazord in place, trapping it. Pulling on the trigger, the rifle sent a blast into the chest of the Megazord that was shot apart as the rangers fell out of it and were sent to the ground as they demorphed.

Kivo shortly followed after them, jumping down from his Megazord and aiming the clockwork rifle at the cluster of fallen rangers. Five of them struggled, while Lloyd, who was at the center of where the blast hit, was out cold.

The rangers were in pain, and had a look of despair in their eyes. Then the clock in the Watchtower struck twelve and a bell began to ring inside it. "High noon blast!" Kivo called out as he charged up a shot and sent it towards the rangers. An explosion occurred behind them as they were sent flying and were scattered by the blast.

They were defeated, beaten, bloodied, all hope had gone from their eyes, their bodies ached with pain. Kivo was about to finish them all off for good. His finger was on the trigger and he was ready to pull it. But he noticed what their were going through. Looking into the white rangers, eyes, he saw fear,tears welling up. 'This is wrong.' That thought came into his head and stayed there as he froze up for a few seconds, then he took his finger off of the trigger and turned around, demorphing as he walked away from the rangers and the battlefield, disappearing into the city.

Queen Nyllia would not be pleased with his decision, however perhaps the rangers saw the humanity he displayed in that instant. How this would turn out? Only time would tell.

|Steam Force|

 **That is chapter 10. This was an interesting chapter for me to write, and some of the things in here were to play out a lot differently. But what's to come is something nobody will expect. So in this chapter, the rangers kept getting beat by Kivo, however learning about the kind of person he is. Queen Nyllia is keeping a big secret from him and the evil ranger disobeyed what he was ordered to do. Even though he shattered their chances with his Megazord, something in him has held him back and that's where the next chapter comes into play.**

 **I got all my work finished in time, thankfully and now I can focus primarily on this since I've really got nothing to do till the next year starts, so expect everything to be back to normal now and I have to go catch up on some reading now, so here's the synopsis and I'll be back next week as usual.**

 **Next Chapter: Humanity**

 **Synopsis: After the devastating battle against Kivo, the rangers try to recover, however there is some unfortunate news regarding one of the rangers, putting more pressure on the others. Meanwhile, Kivo goes rogue and wanders the city, seeing for himself what humanity is truly like, before returning to the hive where he learns the truth about himself. How will this affect him? Can the rangers keep the fight going even after being defeated so easily? Find out next time on Power Rangers: Steam Force.**


	14. Humanity

Power Rangers: Steam Force

Ch11: Humanity

Previously on Power Rangers Steam Force: The evil clockwork ranger Kivo confronted the rangers for the very first time, wiping the floor with them in the first battle. The red ranger Lloyd was consumed by anger and was driven to chase after the evil ranger when he showed up. In their second battle, Kivo activated the Watchtower Megazord, disguised at Vicdon's clock tower all this time. The Steam Titan Megazord was defeated swiftly by this powerful new foe and on the ground, Kivo dealt serious damage to the rangers, ready to finish them off before something inside told him enough…

Kivo was frozen, time seemed to slow as something told him to stop. 'This is wrong' He thought as he turned away, holstering the clockwork rifle and turning away, demorphing as he did. 'These humans, full of fear back there… Maybe they aren't as heartless as I was led to believe. He thought to himself as he left the area.

The rangers struggled to get up, collapsing to the floor every time they tried, some of them only looked to have minor wounds, however others had more serious wounds. The red ranger seemed to be unconscious having taken the full impact of the blast being closest to it.

'He had us dead in his sights… He could've finished us off if he had pulled that trigger back there, so why didn't he? Why'd he leave without a word?' Alex asked as her vision became blurry, seeing the silhouettes of military vehicles diving up before everything faded to black.

[Steam Force]

At the operations station, a day after the battle, the rangers were being treated for their injuries, Vicdon's top medical staff had been brought in, just in case any had suffered any serious injuries and to ensure a speedy recovery for the rangers.

A doctor approached Lohan who was nearby with a concerned expression on his face. It was his job to make sure they were ready for anything, including the enemy using more powerful technology against them. He felt like he had failed them in this respect.

"Sir, most all of them are gonna be fine. We cleaned up their wounds, popped a few shoulders back in and gave them a mild sedative for good measure. They should be up in a few hours. But there's a matter I need to discuss with you in private." The doctor informed him, Lohan gave a nod and gestured for the doctor to follow him.

Once in Lohan's office and the door was closed, the doctor had an expression on his face that you'd see when someone is giving bad news. "It's about Lloyd. He took the full impact and was sent off his feet slamming into the ground. When we looked at him… Well We believe that his spine is broken in several places, we're not sure as to the extent of the damage, but if it's also injured or severed his spinal chord, then he won't walk again. We'd like to take him in and see what we can do, however it's your choice general."

To think, the red ranger is down, after all they've been through as a team. Struggling to accept each other and fighting together despite all of their differences. For the one person who kept them together to potentially be permanently out of it, at the best out of the fight for a little while, was a strong blow dealt to both the team and the city they protected.

"I-I see… Do what you must. I'm sorry, I'd like to be alone for now." Lohan informed the doctor, clearly shaken by the news.

"I understand sir. We'll have Lloyd taken to the hospital immediately, we're going to do everything we can." He said before leaving the General to himself.

"I've never planned for a ranger going down like this…" Lohan sighed. "What do I do now?" He asked himself, clearly distraught, he'd taught them everything they knew and made a bond with them, one between mentor and student, to have one ripped away in an instant like that. It brought back similar feelings to when Aham was lost, however this time, he was gifted with the luxury of bereavement.

[Steam Force]

On the streets of Vicdon, Kivo walked, shrouded by his cloak, looking inconspicuous as he blended into the crowd of people on the streets. Looking around, he saw a playground full of children playing, smiling, being happy. Even in all the chaos and suffering caused by the Terrasoids, there was still joy in the city.

Kivo watched as they played, smirking under the hood he wore. It reminded him of the time he was just a child, wanting to play without a care in the world. Before his mother had transformed him into the monster he is. 'Why is this so? I was taught that the humans were monsters. Yet they look like me, these young ones act as I acted, even the rangers protected their own, asked why I was fighting for the Terrasoids. Could it be that I've been lied to this whole time?' He asked himself, beginning his walk again, the humans looked so peaceful, unlike the Terrasoids who had been bred for war.

The warrior kept walking until he reached the park that he had attacked a mere day ago, yet even now, the people there were happy, enjoying the day and perhaps even life to the best of their ability. He saw parents and children playing together. 'Why couldn't I have this?' He asked himself, ready to move onto another part of the city before he heard civilians screaming in terror as a platoon of drones descended from the sky, along with what appeared to be a kind of mothman.

"Kivo, we've been looking for you everywhere!" The Terrasoid champion spoke. "I am Bollowth, sent here to return you to the hive." He explained to Kivo.

It had been long enough now for his body to begin rejecting the Terrasoid chemicals now, seeing as he had not used his ranger form extensively enough, it would degrade at a slower rate. However Kivo didn't know that, and even by observing , he had doubts that the humans were evil, especially as the drones headed to attack the screaming civilians.

"No…" Kivo said, throwing off his cloak to reveal his armour.

"What did you say?" Bollowth asked, surprised with what Kivo just said.

"You're hurting people that don't deserve it. Who just want to live in peace. I'm doubting everything my mother taught me, including that I'm a Terrasoid." Kivo said defiantly.

Bollowth stood there, shocked at what he was hearing. "Nonsense, of course you're one of us!" The mothman bargained.

"If you want me back. Make me! Clockwork Power!" He called, transforming into the clockwork ranger and levelling his rifle at the mothman.

"Last chance Kivo!" Bollowth told him hesitantly.

"I've made my choice." The Clockwork ranger told the Terrasoid champion before firing into Bollowth, blasting him to the floor.

The ranger proceeded to switch his rifle to bladed mode before tackling the drones and cutting them down with his weapon. As he wrestled with and then cut through the drones attacking a family he stopped and looked at them.

"You need to get to safety now!" He told them, charging into another group of the drones.

"Thank you." The father of the family said as the Clockwork ranger carried on attacking the drones.

He brung his bladed rifle around for another attack, slashing a large group of drones all at once before switching back to rifle mode and blasting them to dust.

Bollowth rose up and grunted as he came around to face Kivo. "I thought you'd come quietly, but it's a good job that you're almost out of time!" The Terrasoid laughed.

"Not a chance." Kivo said, leveling his rifle at Bollowth. However the Terrasoid champion was not bluffing.

The ranger felt a sharp pain as he dropped his rifle and put his hands on his head, demorphing before dropping to his knees. It was more serious now, his pupil fluctuating between between the bright yellow of the Terrasoids and a soft shade of green.

He let out an even more excruciating scream than before, then his vision went dark, dropping to the floor unconscious.

"Phew! I got lucky there, otherwise I'd be worm food. But Queen Nyllia won't be pleased with him acting like this." Bollowth sighed as he hauled Kivo over his shoulder and spread his wings, taking to the skies to return to the hive.

[Steam Force]

In the operations Station, TJ awoke with a grunt as he got up, noticing he had bruises over much of his body. He was the last to get up, and all of the other rangers, save Lloyd were over in the seating area, each of them with a grim look on their face.

The blue ranger shuffled over to the others and slumped down in a free space. "I feel like I've been hit with a crowbar." He groaned as the others just sat there in despair.

"I'd make a joke about how I was hit with one by a supposed friend, but there's something you need to know." Lucas told him with a monotone voice.

"It's Lloyd, he's been injured bad. The medical team took him away, and Lohan won't say what's happened to him." Ayana explained to TJ.

"It's that evil ranger's fault. The reason we're all hurt. And we can't do a thing." Mia despaired.

"Lohan told me to get Lloyd's things and take them over to the hospital, leave them in his room. Hopefully everything's fine though. I don't think we could get by without him holding the team together." Alex added. "I'm gonna go do that now." She finished, getting up and heading over to the red ranger's bunk.

"I think for now, all we can do is recover. That evil ranger wiped us out quickly. I don't know how we can hold on after this. Maybe there's someone who could help us out with this." He told them, thinking back to something the rangers were told not too long since.

[Steam Force]

Within the Terrasoid hive, Queen Nyllia and Stinger presided within the golden pool chamber along with a full compliment of the crablike elite guards. In the Queen's hand was the Clockwork morpher.

A few minutes past before the liquid bubbled and Kivo rose up out of it, Nyllia approaching the restrained warrior. She had been informed of his rebellion and had the liquid modified to try and control him. Once again his eyes were lit up with the bright yellow of the Terrasoids.

"Now, Kivo. Are you ready to serve me again?" She asked, his face was full of anger.

"Am I human?" The warrior asked, a serious tone to his voice.

"You are, however the Terrasoid genes run through your veins with each time you enter the pool, it lasts for so long, but you are as much one of us as you are one of them. So what will you be? Human or Terrasoid?" She asked, strapping the morpher to his arm. "Keep in mind, you have no choice, with the added pheromones you obey me. You are a Terrasoid. Do you understand?" She asked, confident that he was under her control once more.

"I understand." He told her as his eyes began to flicker. "I am a human!" He declared, knocking off one of the elite guard and slamming his hand down on the morpher. Clockwork Power!" He called, morphing into the Clockwork ranger.

"Impossible! That formula worked on every other human, how could he have defied it?" Queen Nyllia asked in disbelief.

Kivo drew his clockwork rifle and blasted the two elite guard to pieces before looking at Nyllia who was stunned from such a turn of events. "Be thankful I can't destroy you too." He told Nyllia before dashing out of the room and down the corridors of the hive, blasting his way through to the exit and making his escape.

"Stinger, get him back!" The Queen ordered, raising her voice.

Stinger nodded "I'll get Bollowth after him, he proved instrumental in Kivo's retrieval last time, he will do so again in the boy's capture."

[Steam Force]

Not long after his escape, Kivo was now on the streets of Vicdon, being chased by a horde of Drones led by Bollowth. Every few moments he'd take cover and fire, taking some of the minions down, however there were just too many and Kivo couldn't keep this up forever.

He turned to run again, however this time he saw five rangers stood side by side, all with angry/distraught faces as they saw the Clockwork ranger.

"You hurt our friend, now he'll never walk again!" TJ called out to Kivo.

The Clockwork ranger walked up to them. "I was under the influence of the Terrasoids, they lied to me, told me I was one of them when I was human. I am deeply sorry but they're here to take me and use me against my own kind again. We should stop them now, for all our sake." He explained to them.

"It's too late for that now. Our friend may never walk again now!" Ayana yelled at him, infuriated.

"Wait. Maybe we should. If the Terrasoids did all that to him and he didn't know any better, he's just another victim, we have to help him." Alex protested.

"The enemy of my enemy is my friend. I don't have to like the guy, but as long as we have the same goal, I think we'd benefit from working with him." Lucas added to the debate.

"Fine. Just don't get in our way." TJ told the other ranger as the five of them held out their arms and pushed the levers forward.

"Full Steam Ahead!" They called, morphing, ready for battle. It felt weird fighting without a red ranger, and even weirder to fight with a former enemy, but the rangers would have to get used to it as they summoned their weapons and charged into the lines of drones.

Kivo stayed where he was, crouching down and aiming his rifle steadily, shooting down drones at the back and taking out any that got too close to the other rangers and would likely swarm them in the process.

Ayana and TJ had their pipeblades out and were stood back to back in the middle of the declining horde of drones. TJ kicked one back before sending his pipeblade smashing into the head of another, sending it quickly to the floor. Ayana punched one in the face and swung her pipeblade into the drone sending it flying into a large group of drones and knocking them all down.

"Batter up!" She remarked with a laugh.

Lucas and Mia were blasting away at the drones that came too close as Alex, who had summoned both weapons and configured them into the Steam Flamer, advanced, burning down the drones as they cut through the small army.

It was not long until all of the drones were wiped out, leaving only Bollowth to fight the rangers. He looked at them hesitantly as they advanced, the Clockwork ranger walking just behind them too, shouldering his rifle as they approached the monster.

"Now now rangers. No need for any violence. Just give me Kivo and I'll be on our way." The Terrasoid bargained.

"And make him your slave again? Not a chance! You're gonna have to go through us bug brain!" Alex declared as the rangers stood strong.

Behind them the Clockwork ranger aimed his rifle at Bollowth. "Get out of here now. Yell your Queen that I'm done being her puppet. If you don't, then I'll just finish you off right here." He told Bollowth who gulped.

"Okay, Okay! I'm off, you don't need to tell me again!" The Terrasoid champion cowered before spreading his wings and flying off.

Then the rangers turned around to Kivo who holstered his rifle and demorphed. "I thank you for your help rangers. May we meet again, perhaps under better circumstances. But there's a reason that they're after me, and they'll try it again with someone else if I don't stop it." He told them, unstrapping the Clockwork morpher and throwing in on the ground, surprising the rangers.

"What are you doing?" TJ asked, as the rangers demorphed wondering what exactly Kivo was about to do.

"I'm doing the only thing I can to keep them from destroying this city and the peace and happiness that resides within it." He told them before he lifted his foot up and stomped upon the morpher repeatedly, shattering it into multiple pieces and breaking it so no other could use it. "Goodbye for now rangers." Kivo told them before turning and leaving, eventually disappearing into the city while the rangers just stood there wondering why he would reject being a ranger and choose to destroy the morpher rather than choosing to direct its power to fight against the Terrasoids.

[Steam Force]

A few days later, at a cafe in the upper class district of the city, A man in his early twenties was sat down inside, a to-go cup of coffee on the table and his face obscured by a newspaper in his hands.

"Young man by the name of 'Lloyd Moon' hospitalized after being severely injured in an attack by the Terrasoid menace, one of the numerous victims since the attacks began." The man read aloud. 'After all this time, could it be? Lloyd, He's here.' The man thought to himself as he took a drink from the coffee cup.

Little did he know of the events that would unfold in the next few weeks. The threat of the Clockwork ranger was over and the morpher was destroyed, but now the plans of the Terrasoids would only grow more dangerous and it was up to the rangers to stop each of these plans, even when their team was more fractured than ever…

|Steam Force|

 **That is chapter 11 finished. Kivo found his humanity, rebelling against the Terrasoids and fighting with the rangers to drive off a force sent to take him. However he destroyed the morpher and disappeared into the city, but will he return? Lloyd is in intensive care and he may never recover, which brings us to the purpose of the next chapter, before that however, who is this mysterious man who knows Lloyd? See if you can guess it.**

 **Aside from all that, I plan on doing a Mythos chapter tomorrow, another Steam Force chapter on friday and a Primal Protectors chapter on Sunday and some time early next week too. That's all for me from now and I'll talk to you all later.**

 **Next Chapter: Knightly Arrival**

 **Synopsis: A Special Guest arrives in Vicdon as the rangers have time to rest in the wake of the loss of their red ranger, debating whether or not to choose a new one and who to choose. Can this guest ease the transition? How will Kivo go on now he is severed from the Terrasoids? Find out next time on Power Rangers: Steam Force**


	15. Knightly Arrival

Power Rangers: Steam Force

Ch12: Knightly Arrival

A week after the battle between the largest force of Terrasoids that had been sent at Vicdon so far, the rangers lick their wounds after the bad news involving their leader.

Lloyd was still in a coma on his hospital bed. The doctors had done what they could to repair the spinal injury to the red ranger, but it was extremely unlikely that anything good would come of it in the end, the best the rangers could hope for right now is that he would wake up from his coma.

Alex sat in a chair at Lloyd's bedside. She sighed looking out of the open window as the curtains fluttered from the breeze coming in. 'With Lloyd down, I don't even know if we can keep fighting. He was leading us and trying to keep us all together. Now he's like this, what's to become of us?' She asked herself before carrying on her thought out loud in a low voice. "Kivo, I know you had no choice but why did you fight so hard, to end up doing this to someone?" Yet little did she know there was another listener at the other side of the window.

Balancing on the ledge and clinging to the wall was Kivo. He no longer wore a white collared shirt with a few buttons undone and the sleeves rolled up. He wore a pair of black jeans and black boots with suspenders over his shirt. 'The reason he ended up like this, it's all my fault. At the time, I intended to destroy him and all the other rangers, I'm sorry now, but I can't take back what I've done.' he explained before scaling back down the building and leaving the area.

Back within the hospital, TJ was on the phone with an unknown acquaintance. "You sure you can make it? With everything going on you might wanna stay put. That said, we're in a real bind right now and none of us know how to lead." He asked the other person on the line.

A teen with an obviously british accent responded. "Well seeing as we just wiped out a bunch of enemy forces the other day, I'd say we should be fine for the rest of the week. Anyway, the others can hold the line if it means aiding the rest of you. It'll take a good few hours but I should arrive." He finished, allowing the blue ranger to respond.

"Great, I'm sure the other rangers will be relieved there's another friendly face to help out." He finished, putting the phone back on the phone box.

TJ headed into Lloyd's hospital room shortly after, seeing the red ranger was still in the coma, he gave a sigh and took a seat before turning to Alex.

"So, how long did the doctors say he'd be in a coma?" The blue ranger asked, getting her attention as she turned her head away from the open window to face him.

"Oh, you're back. Well they said that they didn't know. Could be a week could be a year, maybe longer. Said all we could do is wait. But this' about more than that isn't it." Alex observed by how the blue ranger looked, he was tired and stressed.

"Yeah, been up all night thinking it over. I don't know if any of us can really lead you know. Called up a mutual friend of ours to help out with that. Seeing as Lloyd's down for god knows how long, one of us needs to step up and become a leader, otherwise we're gonna fall apart." He explained to her.

"Well I hope whoever you're calling up knows what they're doing, otherwise we're probably screwed." The white ranger commented, getting up and heading to the window. "What do you think of Kivo. I mean, he did all that stuff, beat us up badly and put Lloyd in here, but he didn't know right from wrong back then. He chose right in the end but couldn't he have joined us?"

"I was angry with him at the time and the others still are with all that he's done, and I don't ever think he can make amends for any of that, all he can do is try. But when he destroyed the morpher, I think he made it clear he was done with all this." TJ said, sharing his thoughts with her.

"You know, sometimes you know what you're saying, I'm surprised you don't wanna take a shot at being red ranger." Alex responded before heading to the door.

"You know how hard it is dealing with our misfit bunch on a daily basis. I really don't wanna be in charge of that." He smirked as the white ranger left the hospital room. He waited a few moments to make sure nobody was there before speaking up. "But the thing with Kivo is, I think we need him."

 **[Steam Force]**

Within the Terrasoid hive's throne room, Queen Nyllia seethed, her anger radiating from her as she sat on her throne, her fists clenched. It was not long after, that Stinger approached the throne and knelt before the Queen.

"My Queen, we have located the traitor. He now lacks morphing ability and should be an easy target for one of your assassins. Shall we proceed?" Stinger asked Nyllia who stared at him with an angry expression.

"Kill the ungrateful child, he is of no use to me now and I don't want a disappointment and failure such as that opposing me any longer." She ordered, still angry that Kivo had defied her.

"Understood my Queen. I shall sent Ouroboro to deal with the boy immediately. He shall succeed or fall." Stinger bowed before leaving to prepare the latest of the Terrasoid champions for its mission.

Although Stinger was certain of this chosen champion's capabilities, he was still rather unsure of this next battle, it was if he sensed that not everything was as it seemed and this next fight would take an interesting turn. Yet only time could tell and the commander of the Terrasoid armies could only watch and see where this would lead for the time being.

 **[Steam Force]**

Through the streets of Vicdon, Kivo strolled, his new clothing allowed him to blend in with the people in the city as he observed his surroundings. The young man soon found himself within the market district where he saw the multiples stores and market stalls dotting the area. For all he had seen of the world and people he was now a part of, he still felt like something was missing.

'I know it was the right thing to do, destroying the morpher to keep its power safe, and leaving the rangers so they can fight without me in the way. But I still feel like I should be helping and fighting the Terrasoids with them. Half of them want me to suffer while the other half believe they need me. I'm trying to find a purpose, but I've been fighting all my life, I don't even know where to start looking for something different. Maybe this' always been what I'm supposed to do.' He thought to himself as he looked around the market.

He saw a young man with dark brown hair buying a necklace that seemed to be for someone else and there were numerous others that also seemed to be buying gifts of goods, such as food and clothing, for themselves or their families.

Yet soon the peace here was short lived. A squadron of drones, carrying a Terrasoid champion, landed and swarmed the area, chasing off most everyone there. Only the aforementioned young man and Kivo stood in the now empty marketplace as the drones made way for the latest Terrasoid.

It was serpentlike in body, spouting long venomous fangs while having an agile body with slender arms and legs. "Kivo, I have finally found you, traitor! By order of the Queen, I Ouroboro have come to end your life." The Terrasoid declared.

"You may seem a little tougher with me stripped of any strength I have left, but that doesn't mean I won't fight if I have to!" Kivo said, standing strong.

The young man interjected, his accent and voice being the same one from the phone call TJ had made hours ago. "I'm guessing you're these Terrasoids I've heard about. If you think you're gonna harm anyone on my watch, be afraid, be very afraid." He threatened, Ouroboro turning to face him.

"And just who are you to say that?" The Terrasoid champion asked, unaware of what was about to happen.

The young man produced a small metalling handheld object and pressed down on a button on the object, causing the sides to flip up and change the object into a crossguard blade hilt. Slashing from left to right, then up and down an after glow of red energy was left in place,creating a red cross as this individual called out at the Terrasoid. "Templar Power, Activate!" He called, being enveloped by the red energy before it dissipated and burned away leaving him in in his ranger suit. The Templar Ranger had arrived in Vicdon.

"Element of Albion, Templar Ranger!" The ranger called out, cutting the air with his longsword.

"A new ranger? Nobody mentioned this to me!" Ouroboro cowered, hiding behind the Terrasoid footsoldiers. "Get him already you morons!" He ordered.

"Consider me on loan!" The ranger retorted as he charged in and sliced through the first drone quickly before bringing his fist around and slamming it into the face of another drone.

One of the drones swung at the templar ranger, but he dodged the attack quickly and easily, creating an open area to attack it. Running it through, the ranger was met with more resistance from drones as they wrestled with him all the while Kivo watched.

"The guy's pretty good I've gotta admit. I'm kinda surprised the rest of the rangers aren't here already though." He said to himself as the ranger threw off the last two drones and gave his longsword a twirl.

"Enough playing games." He muttered as his sword ignited with fire and he charged forward, bisecting two drones at once before advancing on Ouroboro.

"Maybe another time!" The Terrasoid cowered, fleeing from the scene as the five Steam Force rangers ran in.

"Wasn't there supposed to be a fight here?" Lucas asked, seeing no sign of any enemies.

"Look around, fight's already happened, but who beat us to it?" Ayana observed, looking at the destroyed and charred drones.

"Well whoever did this, he's standing right in front of us." Mia told the two who saw the ranger in silver and red staring at them.

"Looks like Kivo's here too." Alex added, unfortunately there were still some with disdain for Kivo.

Ayana's eyes lit up with anger as she tried to leap for Kivo, only to be held back by TJ. "Let me at him, you know he deserves it!" She protested.

"Cool it, he helped us last time, if he's really changed sides then we should make the effort to not try and kill him every time we see him, alright?" The blue ranger reasoned with her, letting her go after she gave a slow and reluctant nod.

"Clearly I've come at a bad time, I'll be taking my leave then." The ranger said getting their attention.

"Mind explaining who you are?" Alex asked, none of them recognising him with his new armour.

"Clearly you don't recognise me, I'm guessing it's something to do with my hair." He said sarcastically. "One second." He finished before demorphing in front of them, each of the rangers understanding as they went over to greet the ranger.

"Aaron! Great, you came by quickly didn't you? Thanks for coming by." TJ greeted as the Templar Ranger, Aaron Du Lac, was greeted by the others in their own ways.

"I told Lloyd if you ever needed me or any of the others to help, I'd come. But I must express my deepest condolences on the injury of Lloyd. He was a good leader, and now you guys need a new one. TJ asked me to come by and see if any of you can lead." He explained to them. "Now let's get out of here, place is a bit dreary don't you think?"

"Sure, back to the base it is." Ayana said, turning heel and leading the way.

"And what about your friend…" The ranger trailed off seeing no sign of Kivo anywhere. "Never mind." Aaron finished, following behind the others after seeing that Kivo had vanished.

 **[Steam Force]**

All of the rangers had made it back safely to the operations station and were making themselves comfortable while Aaron talked with Alex and TJ.

"So our fight against the demons is really heating up now as we fight for these artifacts. We're doing good and thanks to the new suits and powers, we're doing even better. Enough about what's going on in Castelan though. Tell me what happened, the full story." He informed them.

"Well, over a week ago now, there was a new Terrasoid, unlike anything we've fought. A human who had been given Terrasoid powers and for whatever reason thought he was one of them. He beat us and primarily Lloyd over and over again, even defeating our megazord with an even stronger one. In the end he broke free of whatever they were using on him and joined us to fight off a massive way, but he destroyed the morpher and left. He was the person you saved earlier." Alex recounted.

"But now Lloyd is in a coma and he'll never walk again." TJ added as they finished explaining.

"A hard thing to forgive. But there's something hunting him, serpentlike and we need to stop it. I think one of you has the ability to take over and keep your team together, but we need to work out how we stop it first." Aaron explained to them both before they paused to take a long thought.

"We could use Kivo as bait, keep an eye on him till it shows up again. Then you lay in wait till it does and take him out. Easy right?" Alex suggested.

"Sounds easy enough but this seems like a two person job at most. The rest of your team can serve as backup right?" Aaron added to the plan.

"As long as you don't need us to save Kivo, things should be fine." TJ responded, giving the thoughts of the rest of the team.

"Then you and me Alex, let's save Kivo from this Ouroboro." Aaron finished, getting up and heading for the door with Alex.

 **[Steam Force]**

Kivo walked down a dark alleyway as the sun was high in the sky Soon enough he was indeed ambushed by Ouroboro but Kivo wasn't afraid.

"You have a nasty habit of bumping into me, a similar nasty habit for bumping into rangers." The young man said as Aaron, already morphed, charged at the Terrasoid champion with his sword.

Ouroboro turned at the last second, startled by the ranger and slammed him into a wall causing the ranger to demorph with a groan. The Terrasoid smirked in pleasent surprise. "Looks like he wasn't as tough as first thought. And now traitor. There's nobody to protect you!" He laughed, drawing near and bearing its fangs in front of Kivo.

Before the Terrasoid could act, Alex charged in, morphed in her pipeblade and slashed at the monster in the defense of Kivo, knocking Ouroboro back as the white ranger advanced.

"In future I hope you Terrasoids keep away from him, if you know what's good for you. He may have done some wrong in his past, but he's trying to make up for it. I want to help him, I believe in him." She said as she cut down the Terrasoid assassin.

Aaron got up off of the ground and summoned his longsword, igniting it and pointing it at the helpless Terrasoid. "You're someone willing to forgive an enemy who's done wrong. You've proven that you have the strength to fight monsters and you have knowledge enough to make the right calls when you can. You might've not been the first choice for red, but you're the best the rest of the team's got right now." He said to Alex with a smirk.

"So I'm the new red ranger now? Wait was you're going down all a test?" She asked in surprise.

"Maybe it was. Here." He said, tossing her the red Steam Force morpher. "You're in charge now. Get your friend out of here, I'll deal with this guy." He finished, the new red ranger looking at him in surprise.

"You're not coming back then?" She asked as she went over to Kivo.

"Nah, you don't need me, besides, I gotta get back to Castelan before the last train leaves, otherwise Missy and Emlie are gonna kill me." He explained.

"Missy?" She asked, not aware of his sister.

"Long story. Now get going. If anything else happens, don't hesitate to call on us." He said before turning his attention to the Terrasoid as the two turned away.

"Thanks for your help today!" She called as she and Kivo left.

With one swift blow, the ignited sword was stabbed into the monster and it set alight, burning to a crisp. Not even the dark spores that would usually revitalise a fallen Terrasoid could escape the elemental fire and also burned, rendering this enemy completely defeated.

Aaron gave a sigh. "It's been fun, but I better get going before that train leaves. Otherwise I'll have to hitch a ride back with Welkin while he's still grounded at the airport, and after last time I'm pretty reluctant to travel air Stross again." He said to himself before dismissing his sword and leaving for the train station.

 **|Steam Force|**

 **That is chapter 12. The chapter seemed to go quickly and I wanted it to go for more but as it stands it worked out and I can't really complain, it worked how I wanted it and I enjoyed writing it.**

 **Now that Alex has become the second red ranger, her place on the team is open and they're still not at full strength, my answer to that however will be revealed in due time, but a couple of you already know where I'm going with it. But that's not for quite a bit yet, now it's time for a special two parter episode to finally close out the '6th ranger' arc and finally see where the action with Kivo and the rangers takes us.**

 **It's been an interesting week and I'm happy to say I'm not sick anymore, that's good for me because I can catch up on some missed reading while I was sick and do some more writing. The next thing I'll be writing for is in fact Primal Protectors, I'm following up on my plan to get two chapters out a month, at least for this month, so I'll see you all then. Till then I'll talk to you all later.**

 **Next Chapter: Gear Shift: Part 1**

 **Synopsis: The Terrasoids unleash a darker plan to get rid of kivo and destroy the city, leaving the rangers to try and deal with this with only five members of their team. With news from Lohan regarding something that can stop the Terrasoid plans, the fate of the rangers and Vicdon now rests on the shoulders of Kivo. Next Time on Power Rangers: Steam Force.**


	16. Gear Shift: Part 1

Power Rangers: Steam Force

Ch13: Gear Shift: Part 1

Within the Terrasoid hive, Queen Nyllia sat upon her organic throne, an expression of annoyance upon her face. All her months of planning and preparation for the destruction of Vicdon were stopped just because Kivo chose humanity, and now she was trying to get revenge or the young man's disobedience, yet all her previous attempts had failed and her patience was now wearing thin.

Stinger, the Terrasoid Commander, rushed into the throne room of the Terrasoid Hive and knelt quickly at the foot of his queen's throne.

Nyllia had a frustrated look on her face as she looked down at her underling. "This had better not be yet another waste of my time, for your sake." She told the Commander who arose slowly.

"My Queen, I have a plan to solve all of our problems at once, a new Terrasoid has been spawned with the ability to both destroy Kivo, the rangers and the city in one go. At your command I will unleash this beast upon the humans." Stinger informed her, causing the Queen of the Terrasoids to smirk.

"Very well, but be warned, my faithful commander, the punishment for yet another failure against that traitor and the rangers will be far worse than any that you've faced before.

Stinger gulped in fear of the thought as he gave a nod in acknowledgement and left to prepare the monstrosity of a Terrasoid that could take on such a task.

[Steam Force]

Ayana, Mia, TJ and Lucas were sat down in the lounge area of the Operations Station doing their own individual things as usual between fighting the Terrasoids and everyday life. Recent events had divided the rangers' views on certain matters and there was more tension between them than usual, it wouldn't help matters if they did anything more to hinder themselves as a team.

As the rangers present kept to themselves, they looked over to the doorway when they heard footsteps and saw that it was Alex. However to correspond with her new role as the leader and new red ranger of the team, her attire had changed up slightly.

Her new outfit consisted of a red sleeveless athletic top along with jean shorts and a pair of black sneakers. Over her hands were a pair of black fingerless gloves with a red trimming around them. Around her waist, as usual, was her low hanging and heavily stocked tool bet that she always wore around her waist.

Lucas looked up from a book he was reading and noticed the red ranger as she sat down between the others. "Hey, you seen Lohan around lately? Ever since Kivo appeared he's been absent most of the time, none of us know where he's gone."

Alex gave a shrug. "I'm afraid you'll have to put me down on that list too, he is a general in the military though, maybe he got called elsewhere. Who knows where he could be right now."

As she finished her sentence a very familiar voice to the rangers spoke up from afar, getting the five's attention. "Well you were somewhat right, I was indeed called away on some rather important business along with the completion of a project we have been working on in recent times. However I'm back now, I'm thankful you've managed to sort out a replacement for Lloyd, yet the team is significantly weakened with only the five of you. Because of this-" The mentor was cut off from what he was about to say as the alarms in the Operations Station sounded off.

"We'll be careful for now till we figure something out, okay?" Alex replied to General Lohan who stood there open mouthed as the rangers quickly passed him.

"Alright, I've been itching to kick some more Terrasoid butt all week!" Ayana enthused, making a couple of the rangers laugh as they went to fight another Terrasoid, but just another wasn't at all what this new threat was.

Lohan stood there with an amused look on his face. 'I did try to explain to them, but I suppose when we have everything ready, they'll find out for themselves exactly what I've been working on. But first, I need a little chat with someone.' The old General thought to himself as he headed for the exit too, heading in the opposite way to where the rangers were going, more specifically, to Vicdon's Clocktower.

[Steam Force]

The five rangers arrived on scene to find a squadron of drones on scene, but there was no trace of any Champion in charge of the insectoid warriors.

"I thought those alarms only go off when there's some major threat to the city." TJ said to the others who nodded in agreement, the five of them had confused expressions on their faces as they readied themselves to fight the drones.

"Maybe we should just stop these drones doing whatever they were sent here to do before we go any further." Mia suggested to which they all agreed.

Alex stepped forward. "Then without further ado. It's morphing time!"

"Full Steam Ahead!" The five threw their arms out and pushed the lever on their morphers and were absorbed in a flash of bright light which quickly disappeared in a stream of steam, leaving the five of them morphed and ready to fight. Alex was now in the red Steam Force ranger suit which had been modified to accommodate her figure.

They charged in, ready to fight the drones that seemed to just stand there without motion, each of the rangers taking one of the footsoldiers to attack. Alex and Lucas let out a few punches to the drones they were fighting, but were surprised when the drones stopped their attacks at the exact same time as each other. In turn, the other drones were now on the move and had already began attacking Ayana, TJ and Mia.

Despite the appearance of these drones, they were far from the usual kind that they had faced before. While the rangers tried to recuperate from the synchronised attack of these drones, the minions charged as one battering the five of them with of series of kicks and punches that knocked the rangers to the ground.

As the rangers struggled to get up after being hammered by this unusual group of drones, the minions walked backward until they grouped together. The five rangers eyes went wide behind their helmets as they saw the drones transform into humanoid masses of small insects that were the size of flies. As quickly as the 'drones' had revealed what they truly were, the swarms flew up high and joined together before landing back on the ground in a humanoid from, yet still appearing as a massive swarm.

The mass of insects spoke up in a distorted voice. "You have provoked us, rangers, so we must swarm. We are Myriad, but our primary target is not here. Stay out of our way rangers, it will all be over soon." The new Swarm-like Terrasoid Champion introduced, before parting and flying up in a more classic swarm formation, leaving the rangers to lick their wounds.

The five of them got up with a groan and demorphed before regrouping. "So now we're fighting a swarm of little things that can change into different things, just great." Lucas complained, holding his shoulder.

Ayana had a thoughtful look on her face. "It said something about its primary target. Any idea who that could be?"

Alex gave the others a stern expression as she realised who Myriad was going after. "If recent events have anything to do with it, I think we all know who Myriad is going after."

[Steam Force]

Atop the huge towering Clocktower in Vicdon, situated on the metallic balcony just underneath the large clock itself was Kivo, he was crouched down and stood on the corner of the overlook. The young man simply stared out into the city below, not taking his eyes off of it for a second.

As he stood there on the edge, he heard the maintenance access door, which was to only real way up to the balcony, open. Looking around, he saw General Lohan approaching, and thusly swivelled around and hopped off the balcony and began walking towards the old man before the two met.

"So you managed to find where I was hiding out, so what do you want?" Kivo asked as the General produced a set of documents from his jacket.

"You know that the Terrasoids will never stop hunting you. You can spend you life free from them running if you choose, but looking over your shoulder for the rest of your life isn't any way to live. I want to offer you a chance to be part of something bigger. You're a fighter, and you don't know anything more than fighting. This gives you a chance to direct that at our mutual enemies. Just give it some thought, get back to me when you're ready."

Kivo began to look over the files and became interested in what they said quickly. As the mentor got back to the maintenance door, Kivo stopped the old man. "Lohan, wait!" he called, getting the attention of the General.

Lohan had a smirk on his face as he turned to listen to what Kivo was about to say.

[Steam Force]

Half an hour after the rangers had returned to the Operations Station to work out a plan of action against the swarming Terrasoid Champion, the alarm sounded off again and the five rangers were called out into the field to try and defeat Myriad.

The rangers had been called out to the port district and were now on the waterfront as they faced down the latest of Terrasoids. Myriad retained the humanoid shaped swarm form when he had initially revealed himself and had noticed the five morphed rangers running up, they had all called upon their Pipeblades and Steam Blasters, configuring them into Steam Flamers.

"Your interference ends here rangers." Myriad growled.

"I think someone called pest control, because you're about to be exterminated." TJ mocked as they held the Flamers out, pointed at the swarm being.

Myriad flew forward taking a larger swarming form and getting closer to the five of them. When he got in range, the five of them let out bright streams of flames that ignited the hivemind which let out a pained screech.

"We are dying!" Myriad let out as the flaming swarm became frenzied before the whole swarm dove into the waters by the docks, extinguishing the fire.

As the rangers looked over to where Myriad had submerged himself. The swarm arose, quickly morphing into a large fist that slammed into the rangers, knocking the weapons from their hands and sending them colliding into the thick wooden doors of one of the old warehouses, knocking them out of their ranger forms in the process.

"So much for that plan." The yellow ranger coughed as the five of them attempted to get up after such an impact.

"Your interference can no longer be tolerated rangers. We will not allow you to get in the way of our plans. We must finish you here." Myriad told the five wounded teens that were now defenseless.

"Hey hive for brains!" a familiar voice called out, the rangers looked over to see that Kivo had arrived to the fight with a determined look on his face.

"What are you doing here?" Alex asked as the five teens slowly got up, holding their sides.

"Well I'm pretty sure you'll have to ask Lohan about that when this is all over, for now. This is something between me and this thing." He told the red ranger before turning to face Myriad. "This is where it ends alright? All this hunting me, is gonna stop. When I'm done with you, Nyllia is gonna know that!" Kivo declared as the swarming Terrasoid Champion approached.

"We have found the primary target, our mission cannot be abandoned, if you resist you will be eliminated swiftly." Myriad informed the young man.

"Oh, I don't think so." Kivo responded with a smirk before lifting his right arm up to show a device strapped to his wrist. While it was largely similar to the Clockwork morpher, it had a sleeker design and sported a cog themed activator/switch in place of any other buttons on the device. "Let's give this thing a whirl." He said to himself as he span the cog on the morpher.

"Is that?" TJ asked looking at what Kvio was doing with interest as to what was happening and wondering how Lohan was involved in all this.

"Gear Shift!" Kivo called out as he was overlaid by a multitude of turning cogs and gears.

[Morphing Sequence]

Kivo stood in front of a clock, the hands of which were turning quickly, with turning gears and cogs expanding past its circumference, the rest of the area being completely dark. As both hands hit twelve, a white suit appeared on him. In quick succession, the hands hit twelve again and a bronze shirt with a white collar appeared. Yet again, when the hands hit twelve, he now had bronze sleeves and boots. On the next strike of Twelve, a pair of black pants materialized onto his suit. As it his twelve again, silver banding around the arms and legs and a silver belt with a bronze gear as the buckle materialized. The next rotation brought what appeared to be the lower half of a duster coat in the same bronze material of the majority of the suit and attached to the rest of the suit at the belt. A penultimate strike of twelve made a gear symbol in black with a hollowed out center appear on the chest of the suit. With the final strike of twelve, the helmet of the suit was largely similar to what it was before, it was sleek and had a gear for the visor, two bronze clock hands were in the five and seven positions and the small space between them was silver as a mouthpiece. At both sides of the helmet, were small cog shaped gaps with glass over them, from these, one could see the inner workings of the helmet as gears, cogs and other components that would be inside a clock. The inner workings were also illuminated by a warm orange light, also giving the glass a orange tint/glow.

[Morphing Sequence]

As the gears dissipated, the five other rangers looked at Kivo in surprise, for one that he had chosen to fight and another for the new ranger form that he had donned.

"Making the Clock Strike Twelve! Cog Ranger!" Kivo announced, titling himself as the Cog ranger, successor of the Clockwork ranger.

Myriad looked over Kivo in his new suit. "Not even that power can save you now Kivo, the effectivity of Myriad is unmatched, we will complete our mission, even if we have to destroy you. There is no defeating us, we are infinite."

"I'm not the one who needs saving." Kivo laughed as he pulled out a modified version of the Clockwork rifle, now sporting the theme of cogs and gears more than it had. Another feature to note was that there was now a wind up mechanism on his weapon, presumably for powerful charged bursts from his weapon. "Let's see how the cog rifle fares now." He said, firing into the humanoid figure of the collective swarm.

When the shot hit Myriad, it blasted a huge hole in the swarm and Kivo smirked under his helmet as he viewed his handiwork. Yet the smile on his face was quickly wiped off as the swarm came together and repaired the hole.

"Foolish boy, we are numbered beyond comprehension, there is no way to defeat us." Myriad boasted as the swarming humanoid figure approached Kivo quickly.

Yet when reaching the Cog ranger, Myriad was blasted back by a point blank range shot from the Cog rifle. Kivo placed his hand on the buckle of his belt before removing his hand, only for the buckle to come off too.

A red light activated in the center of the gear buckle before a mechanized voice came from the object. "Cog mine armed, please keep to a safe distance when detonating."

"My belt buckle is also a mine? I'm just glad it didn't go off while it was still attached to me. But this gives me an idea." Kivo said to himself as he threw the Cog mine through the air and he span the winding mechanism on his Cog rifle to charge it up.

"High noon blast!" Kivo called out as the bell on the clocktower rang as the clock struck twelve, marking midday. With that he pulled the trigger and sent out a powerful blast of energy that collided with the Cog mine as it reached the Terrasoid Champion.

The blast caught all of the swarm and effortlessly incinerated Myriad. Kivo turned around and shouldered his weapon as the flames of the explosion died down. "Stop the Clock." Kivo said as he walked over to help the other rangers.

As he did so, the dark spore remnants of Myriad clustered together and the hivemind creature was reborn. Though the insects remained the same size as they had originally, the amount of there were now was far more than originally and they had clustered together to create a giant swarm being capable of destroying the city.

"That's a big Terrasoid alright." Lucas said as the six of them looked up at the towering monstrosity that let out a enraged roar.

"Anyone got a really big can of bug spray, because I think we're gonna need it." Ayana commented as they looked up at the supersized Myriad.

"If they did make that stuff, I think we'd be all out by now." Alex commented as the rangers lined up and held their arms out.

"Full Steam Ahead!" They called out, morphing into their ranger forms, ready to attempt to defeat the lastest supersized threat to the city.

|Steam Force|

 **That is chapter 13 everyone. We have the latest ranger, the Cog ranger, who has a similar design to the Clockwork ranger but it's been updated, more because I can't for the life of me remember or find the design of that suit, I'm not even sure I did a design for it, but it's here now and I enjoyed designing it. Myriad means Innumerable, which I think fits a being that is based off of a swarm. But now the rangers and Kivo have to fight together to defeat Myriad once and for all, it's gonna be an exciting chapter for sure.**

 **Now, I have recently completed the baseline plot for Steam Force, which means I actually have a plan on how things are gonna go for once. I'm planning on being finished with this by late september to early/mid october. Mainly because I have another story I want to start pretty soon, which is Occult Circle if you haven't seen. But also because I want to make up for lost time with my general procrastination. Now I'll be trying to get out a few chapters of this out per week, but for this Martial Strike and Primal Protectors are gonna go on hiatus for a little bit. I'll still be getting out Mythos every week as I have to reach a certain point with that before a certain deadline I set myself for story reasons. So expect more updates from this. Let me know your thoughts on this, because it will help to make my mind up, but that is my plan for now. Yet for the time being, I'm going to have a little break, until the next time everyone.**

 **Next Chapter: Gear Shift: Part 2**

 **Synopsis: Now the Cog ranger, Kivo and the other rangers must work together to fight the now gargantuan swarm Myriad, using both of their megazords to fight it off, the rangers must work together for the very first time to have any chance of defeating Myriad.**


	17. Gear Shift: Part 2

Power Rangers: Steam Force

Ch14: Gear Shift: Part 2

In the aftermath of the events of the battle with Myriad, the rangers, including the latest addition to the team, Kivo, the Cog ranger, now stand as the only ones able to defeat the now supersized swarm being that was attacking the city of Vicdon.

The six morphed rangers lined up. While the five Steam rangers called upon their rail riders, Kivo gave the gear shaped wheel on his morpher a spin.

"Watchtower Megazord, Engage!" He called out as the large Clocktower in Vicdon rose up and began configuring into its Megazord form.

As he headed into his now completed Megazord, the rangers began to configure their own Megazord. Despite the lack of a white ranger at this point in time, the mono rider showed up along with the rest and began configuring as normal as the five Steam rangers joined their zords as they formed into the Steam Titan Megazord. Though without a white ranger, their strength would likely be weakened by the unfilled role.

"Alright Myriad, you're going down!" Alex declared as she and the others throttled their controls forward for the hulking machine to advance on the swarming mass before them.

Swinging at the frenzied humanoid hive mind, the fists of the Megazord swatted many of the small insectoids away, creating large gaps in Myriad's body.

"Alright! We should keep going, this thing looks like it's falling apart, I say we finish it before it can do anything about that." Ayana enthused as the rangers took ahold of the controls again.

"Way ahead of you." TJ said as he throttled his controls forward.

The Steam Titan charged forward and kicked with the express rider foot straight through the Terrasoid swarm. When attempting to retract the foot from Myriad however, the insects forming the creature increased in density, creating as close to a solid being as it could and trapping the foot.

"Ugh it's stuck!" Lloyd groaned as he used the tram rider arm to punch at the solid form Myriad, to no avail.

No matter what they tried, the Megazord was stuck and wasn't getting free any time soon. As the rangers struggled to free their Megazord, Kivo headed over with his Megazord that currently wielded the clock hand themed blade.

With a swift swing, the Watchtower Megazord brought the blade down on Myriad , attempting to cut the Terrasoid in half. Myriad noticed this at the last minute and brought its solidified insectoid arm up to meet the weapon in a defensive maneuver.

The blade cut cleanly through the arm and caused the end to fall to the ground where it evaporated into a wispy smoke. The other end of the arm that was still attached to Myriad seemed to have a cauterised wound now as the monster let out a pained wail.

"You'll pay for hurting us like that ranger!" The swarm being roared in agony as he took control of the Steam Titan's momentum, spinning it around and causing the momentum of the Megazord to increase rapidly.

With quick release, Myriad separated, allowing the Megazord to go free. Unfortunately the Megazord had picked up so much speed that it was now barreling toward the Watchtower Megazord. With a crash, both of the metallic giants collided and fell to the ground.

"So much for that." Alex groaned as she held the top of her helmet before she and the others rose the Megazord up.

"I feel like the room's still spinning. Hopefully we don't have to go through that again, I might end up barfing in my helmet." Ayana complained as she tried to get her bearings.

Inside the clock themed cockpit, Kivo arose slowly and pulled out his Cog rifle. The Megazord outside followed his movements, converting the clock hand blade into the large more mechanical version of the rifle the Cog ranger wielded. Firing into Myriad, Kivo expected his weapon to do similar damage to the attack that severed the arm from the Terrasoid.

Instead, the blast shot through and took out a few more of the insects, but they were quickly replaced. As the Steam Titan faced up against, the red ranger in the center of the Megazord's cockpit took note of this and began to formulate a plan to take out the monstrous Myriad.

"Okay everyone, I've got a plan, but you're not gonna like it." The red ranger informed her team.

"Whatever you're planning on doing better work!" Lucas replied as the other rangers in the cockpit nodded in agreement, hesitant about this plan of Alex's.

"It'll work, most likely. Just follow my lead. Kivo, when I tell you, you need to get a headshot on that thing, everyone got it?" Alex explained to them, the five other rangers nodding in understanding of the orders given by the red ranger.

Without another word, the Steam Titan charged forward bringing its fists into contact with the giant Myriad swarm. The arm of the figure grasped ahold of one of the Megazord's arms and tightened around it, while the other arm struck through the body and got caught too as Myriad then solidified into the insectoid mass. As the Megazord struggled to break free, Myriad focused on the Steam Titan.

"Kivo, do it now!" Alex called out as the trapped arms were beginning to be crushed under the shifting weight of millions of small insects.

"Copy that." Kivo acknowledged as he aimed his rifle in turn with the Watchtower Megazord. "Looks like your time, has run out." kivo said confidently as he pulled back the trigger on the Goc rifle and the Megazord followed suit.

A clean shot of energy fired out of the end of the supersized rifle and barrelled into the head of the solid form Myriad, blasting the head of the Terrasoid off and causing it to divide quickly for a moment before solidifying again. The wounded Myriad tumbled around without direction due to the loss of the head. It appeared as if the head held the collective intelligence of the Terrasoid and now the swarm was just a collective of mindless drones unable to fight back.

"Alright! Nice going Alex." TJ cheered as the other rangers gave small cheers of their own.

"I said it'd work, but this fight isn't over yet. Lets finish this swarm off for good!" Alex called out as the five rangers prepared to use their finisher attack.

"Max Speed! Collision Strike! The five called out as the Megazord increased in velocity, quickly lifting off the ground and levelling out before lifting its fists forward. Colliding with the Terrasoid Champion and ravaging the swarm with the two powerful high speed punches before landing as the remnants of the swarm monster exploded.

The Steam Titan Megazord lowered its fists as the Watchtower Megazord lowered the rifle in its hand before returning to its point of origin and transforming back into Vicdon's clocktower.

[Steam Force]

Back within the Terrasoid hive, Queen Nyllia gripped the organic throne she sat upon strongly with her hands as she seethed in anger at the most recent of events. Stinger knelt at the foot of the throne, A hint of fear in his face as he awaited punishment for his failure.

"One thing. I ask you to do one thing and you completely fail to deliver!" Nyllia let out in frustration.

"I, I understand your anger my Queen. I believed that Myriad wouldn't be defeated for sure, but the rangers would be gone now if it wasn't for Kivo. No one expected for him to return with a new morpher and defeat your champion. With the right time and preparation, I will find a way to destroy the rangers, but our army is dwindling. Punish me if you, must but we require more forces before we can return to battle." Stinger tried to explain to the Terrasoid Queen.

Nyllia grunted before rising from her throne. "Very well, if we need more warriors, we shall have them. Succeed and you will make up for this mistake, for the time being."

Stinger gave a sigh of relief at the Queen's mercy at the time. "I won't let you down, on my life."

The Queen smirked as she walked down to where her strongest champion knelt. "Then that will be the price for failure." She informed Stinger with malicious grin on her face, the Terrasoid Champion gulped, fearful of another failure.

[Steam Force]

The six rangers returned quickly to the Operations Station after the battle, their first victory with Kivo as part of the team coming to an end. As they got further inside the ranger HQ, they all came to a halt when they saw Lohan stood there, he seemed to have been waiting for them for a few minutes now.

"Well done rangers, to all of you. After the swarm Terrasoid became a giant, you came together and worked out how to defeat it, with Alex's quick thinking, and everyone's willingness to work together. I hope that there aren't any complications about Kivo being part of your team." Lohan congratulated them as a few of them had an awkward look about them.

"I'm not okay with this. He put Lloyd in hospital and now we're supposed to be all friendly with him. I don't think so." Ayana replied, looking rather irritated with the thought of having to work with the Cog ranger.

"So what if he did that, it isn't like he knew what he was doing, he was tricked, plain and simple. Of course you wouldn't get that Ayana, since you're always looking out for number one." Lucas interjected, angry with the yellow ranger for being so inconsiderate.

"I don't have to deal with this. I'm out of here." Ayana growled and turned away.

Mia looked at the others before walking out of the headquarters too, not giving an explanation for why she was leaving, but the others assumed it was due to a similar reason that Ayana gave.

TJ looked at the remaining rangers and gave a sigh. "I'm fine with working with you Kivo, but it still doesn't sit right with me, what happened to Lloyd. Just give the others time to cool off, they're stubborn. I'll go talk to them, see what I can do about this."

Alex looked at the floor. "So much for being a leader. I can't even keep my team together."

General Lohan placed his hand on the young red ranger's shoulder. "It won't be that last time it happens Alex. Your team have had troubles from the beginning, I'm afraid that Kivo's arrival strained your relationships more and this won't be that last time things get like this. But you're gonna get through this, all of you are."

"Thanks, I know I'm just a replacement for the best choice for red, but if you think I can do it, I might just be able to." Alex said, giving a warm smile.

"Still, maybe I shouldn't be here for now, not until I've made up for what I did to your friend." Kivo said to the red ranger as he stood there, uncertain as to what he should do next.

"In my eyes, you were a victim too you know. And I'm not letting that happen again, so you're staying." She asserted, to which Kivo gave a short nod.

"If that's how you want it. But thanks, for being understanding. I regret everything I did back then, and I appreciate that someone knows how it is." Kivo thanked her, giving a smile to the young woman in red.

"It's no problem. I can relate to having parents that want you to be something else, something you don't want to be." Alex's eyes wandered and became distant as she thought about that.

As the rangers continued their conversation, General Lohan returned to his office, sitting down in his seat, before receiving a phone call the he answered immediately. "Yes?" Lohan asked as he placed the phone to his ear, receiving information as he listened away. "Really? This is surprising, he rarely leaves his estate at the top of the city. I'll work on it right away, he won't be disappointed by what I have to show him." Lohan finished speaking with the caller and placed the phone back.

His head slumped down onto the desk and Lohan gave a stressed sigh as he brought his hands to the sides of his head. 'If the rangers don't come together quickly, It'll be a disaster, we'll lose all chance of stopping the Terrasoids. I just hope they can fix it before he arrives.' Lohan thought as the old General let out a stressed sigh. But for all his hopes, getting this team of rangers working together, was something easier said than done.

|Steam Force|

 **That is Chapter 14 of Steam force, and a little bit shorter than usual, but primarily because I didn't really have much content planned for this, other than a megazord fight, a few hints at what's to come, the team somewhat fracturing and the small dilemma that Lohan and the rangers are facing if they don't manage to regroup soon, before this mysterious man arrives. There was a little relation between Alex and Kivo there too, just to add a little bit of light to this chapter.**

 **I should have three to four chapters out next week providing all goes well and no procrastination gets the better of me, so look forward to that, and the last chapter of the next week will be the start of a new arc. But the next chapters are going to be more Kivo centered ones as well as him trying to fix the effects of his actions, with a special surprise in store too. Until next time everyone.**

 **Next Chapter: Fractured**

 **Each of the Steam rangers have a different opinion on Kivo and him being the latest addition of the team. Their tensions strained more than ever, the Cog ranger works to try and repair some of the damage he's done. Yet will an attack from the Terrasoids make the situation better, or worse? Find out next time on Power Rangers: Steam Force.**


	18. Fractured

Power Rangers: Steam Force

Ch15: Fractured

Since Kivo's return as the Cog ranger, the team have divided based on their opinion of the new ranger, leading to them breaking apart for an indefinite amount of time. Now it is up to all of them to come together and set aside their differences if they are to keep Vicdon safe from the latest Terrasoid threat.

Alex seemed down in the dumps today as she sat curled up on the couch in their lounge area, usually she'd work on a piece of tech she was working on if there was something on her mind, but since her team divided, she hadn't worked on anything, just sitting there absently.

Nearby, Lucas was training with Kivo, the latter giving his teammate tips on how to improve when he's fighting. Having his specialist training from his upbringing, Kivo was a better hand to hand fighter overall so he was happy to share what he could while they tried to resolve the situation at hand.

As they did so, TJ entered the Operations Station for the fifth time today, he had been all over the city looking for the others, without much luck the previous times. He appeared exhausted as he shuffled over to where Alex was and slumped down into the couch.

"It took me a while, but I finally found Ayana. She's still angry about having to work with Kivo, but I think she's starting to cool down." He explained to the red ranger beside him.

"Any sign of Mia yet? None of us can find her anywhere, even the hospital hasn't seen her come in to visit Lloyd." Alex replied, noting the apparent disappearance of the black ranger.

"I've looked everywhere and there's no sign of her, she's just gone." The blue ranger told his leader, rubbing his eyes as he did so.

"Here's hoping everything's fine, I don't think we can afford losing another ranger so soon." Alex said, standing up. "I guess I'll go look, see if I can find her instead." She finished heading for the exit, despite the red ranger trying to stay optimistic, she had a bad feeling about it.

[Steam Force]

Inside an abandoned factory at the far edge of the work district, Mia awoke, propped up against a post, she felt groggy as she came around and found herself inside the warehouse. Looking around, she saw civilians in a similar situation that seemed to be tied up with some form of green gunk. Glancing down, Mia saw that she too was restrained by this gunk and no matter how much she struggled, she couldn't get out of the gunk trapping her.

A crazed laugh came from nearby as the latest grotesque Terrasoid Champion strolled into the black rangers view along with a small squadron of drones. The Terrasoid in question appeared as a large green toad-like humanoid, complete with large pulsing spherical glands of the slimy Gunk just below it's head which were obviously the source of the slime binding Mia to the post.

"We've got a tonne of humans ready for the Queen boys! But while there's still more Gunk ready to use, let's go capture some more, otherwise she'll have our hides." The croaking reptilian Terrasoid ordered to the drones before they left to continue whatever plan was brewing.

Despite the Gunk trapping Mia at this moment in time, she found that her legs were free to move about and decided to try and stand up. Though when she did so, the Gunk became more restrictive and seemed to grow around her legs, trapping her further due to her efforts to break free. "So much for that idea." The black ranger sighed, slumping into the ground as best she could.

[Steam Force]

Ayana Towers was pushing her way through the crowded midday streets of the Port district, she still wore an angry expression on her face as she mulled over everything that had happened in the past few weeks leading up to her going off on her own.

The yellow ranger was deep in thought that she didn't look where she was going and walked straight into a man in his mid-twenties. "Hey, watch where you're going!" The man scowled as he pushed past her after bumping into the ranger.

To Ayana, it came off as hostile and gave an annoyed snort followed by. "Sorry." In a sarcastic manner. Without a second glance at the rude encounter, she carried on walking where she heard civilians scream and flee from the area if they were lucky.

The yellow ranger watched to see the Toad themed Terrasoid hurl out large spheres of Gunk at Civilians, effectively trapping them before the monster scooped them up with his tongue and placed them inside his body before laughing in an almost childish manner.

Ayana made a tight fist as the Terrasoid noticed her and got ready to capture her too. "Bad timing swamp breath. I was already angry, now I'm really angry. You're not gonna like me when I'm really angry." She threatened as she held her arm forward, revealing her morpher, before placing her hand on the lever. "Full Steam Ahead!" The yellow ranger called, Morphing in a shroud of smoke before calling on her Pipeblade and charging forward at the Terrasoid Champion.

Swatting at the latest enemy, the yellow ranger couldn't seem to hit it at all as she was kicked back by the Toad that belched out another Gunk projectile, hitting her weapon before dropping down to the floor, disarming Ayana and leaving her vulnerable to further attack.

"Ha ha ranger! Don't underestimate the power of Toadshot! Now to catch you and hand you over to my Queen." The Terrasoid known as Toadshot enthused as he readied himself to fire off another round of Gunk at the yellow ranger.

Before Toadshot could entrap Ayana in it's strong Gunk, it was knocked back by a round of blasts, keeping the Terrasoid at bay momentarily. Looking around, the yellow ranger saw the remaining rangers, including Kivo run up by her.

"Any clue what this thing's after?" TJ asked as he drew his steam blaster and aimed it at Toadshot.

"I think he's kidnapping people. You guys didn't need to come though. I had this handled." She explained with a groan.

"It looked like you were about to get hit by that monster's attack, you're lucky Kivo fired at it with his rifle before that happened." Lucas commented, getting Ayana angrier than before, causing her to charge straight ahead without thinking first.

"Hey watch out!" Alex called as she ran after the yellow ranger, noticing Toadshot was about to fire out another round of the Gunk at Ayana. It was too late for her to stop what was coming though and the red ranger dived into her teammate, knocking her out of the way whilst becoming trapped in the strong substance.

TJ fired his steam blaster at Toadshot to provide cover fire as Lucas advanced with his Pipeblade, ready to swing it at the Terrasoid Champion in front of him. The two rangers were about to perform a simultaneous attack with their weapons, TJ squeezed the trigger on his blaster, only for it to jam, disallowing him to fire and getting him and Lucas into an unfortunate position.

"It's your turn next!" Toadshot laughed as he fired out more Gunk that hit the blue and green rangers, trapping them too. As they struggled to free themselves, Toadshot turned to the remaining rangers. "Three of you down and only too to go. Queen Nyllia is gonna be real pleased!"

"Think again, we're gonna stop you here and now, before you can take any more people!" Kivo declared as he aimed his Cog rifle at Toadshot and began to wind it up for a powerful attack.

"While you're stood there like that, I'll take out your friend in yellow here!" The Terrasoid Champion exclaimed while Kivo was powerless to do anything, but as the Toad-like foe turned to capture Ayana, he let out a screech as two shots from a steam blaster hit him in the eyes and temporarily blinded him.

Looking over, Kivo saw that it was the yellow ranger's doing as she stood with her steam blaster in her hand. "And that's why you don't mess with me." She said confidently as she got ready to attack Toadshot again.

Giving a cowardly croak, Toadshot scooped up the captured rangers with his tongue before fleeing up the side of the building. "I'll get you two next time!" The Terrasoid called as he went out of view.

Both of the remaining rangers demorphed after a few moments, with Kivo then turning to face Ayana. "He got away, now what?"

In response, she gave a groan. "Maybe if you'd have shot him sooner, I wouldn't've had to, maybe you're just stalling for time so he can take us all out." Ayana accused him, folding her arms.

"Seriously? You still think I'm with them. I'm done helping them, what's it gonna take to make you realise that?" Kvio asked, walking up to her.

"You're one of them, always will be. There's no changing who you are at heart. I bet when you were fighting us you enjoyed it, I bet you enjoy watching the other Terrasoids hurt my teammates too."

Kivo gritted his teeth and turned away. "By your logic you're always gonna be a bitter and angry person. Do what you want, I'm going after this guy. If you're coming along then stay out of my way." He told her as he walked off to find Toadshot before he could strike again.

[Steam Force]

While Kivo searched throughout the city for Toadshot, Ayana had slowly made her way into the Operations Station, grumbling to herself as she strolled in.

After making her way further into the building, the yellow ranger looked up to see Lohan watching her. "I sent the others out not too long ago, if you're here to make up with them, it's too late, you'll have to wait till they come back."

"Some Toad monster caught most of them, Kivo's gone after it, I'm not following _him_ to fight that thing." She said, with anger still in her voice.

"After everything that's happened, you still don't trust him. I do admit at first I thought it was too convenient for him to defect like he did. But then I spoke with him. Maybe if you just sat down and you two tried to understand each other, you'd see you're not that much different from each other." Lohan suggested.

Ayana sighed. "Why should I? I don't owe him anything, especially after all the harm he did to our team."

"Because he's trying to make up for what he's done. You can't be angry at anyone who does something if they're willing to fix it, at the least you let them try. If you take the time to understand someone before judging them, you'll see you're more alike than you might think." Lohan finished as the ranger gritted her teeth and clenched her fist.

"Fine. I'll work with him, but if anything happens, I told you so." She let out a breath of air before turning around. "You know, you're pretty smart, for an old man." She finished before heading off to find Kivo and Toadshot before it was too late.

The general chuckled as he headed back to his office. "I like to think of myself as stubborn more than anything." He added as he entered the secluded office room.

[Steam Force]

Inside the same warehouse that Mia was being held, Toadshot's stomach erupted, releasing all of his captives. The other rangers landed by Mia, now unmorphed and powerless for the time being.

Toadshot gave a croaky laugh as he waddled his way over to the captive rangers with a pair of drone guards. "Alright, just two more rangers to go and we can finally get out of here and back to the hive."

While the Terrasoid Champion was distracted by his indefinite triumph, the morphed form of Kivo slipped through an open window and onto a walkway above the holding area where he readied his Cog rifle. Kivo fired off a few shots at the drones around the area, taking them down whilst the other drones scrambled to defensive positions.

In this time, Kivo switched positions to begin firing again, but when he stood on a set of wooden boards patching up a hole in the walkway, the Cog ranger fell straight through as they cracked and gave way. Crashing into a stack of cardboard boxes, he became quickly surrounded by drones. When he looked forward with a pained groan, he saw Toadshot nearing him, ready to capture him too.

"Now you'll get what's coming to you, traitor." The Terrasoid croaked as he readied another round of Gunk to fire off and capture Kivo. As Toadshot stood tall to deliver the entrapping Gunk, he became startled when two quick shots hit him in the side of the face.

Kivo and Toadshot looked over to see a morphed Ayana with her steam blaster aimed at the face of the Terrasoid Champion. As they watched her, she turned her head slightly to the Cog ranger. "You just gonna stand me or are you help me make this slimeball sing?" She asked as the Cog ranger got up and converted his rifle into blade mode and began fighting against Toadshot as the yellow ranger shot down the drone forces in the warehouse.

"Glad you finally came around." Kivo said from across the room, whacking Toadshot around the head with the butt of his weapon.

"Think yourself lucky!" The yellow ranger remarked.

Moments after saying so, Ayana hit a drone right between it's buggy eyes before calling on her Pipeblade and finishing off the drones by combining the two weapons into the Steam Flamer and incinerating the minions in a stream of fire. Quickly disconnecting the two weapons, Ayana holstered her blaster for the moment as she too tackled Toadshot head on.

Bringing the bladed edge of his melee format Cog rifle around, Kivo cut diagonally down the front of the Terrasoid, leaving a large gash in the monster. As Toadshot yelped at the sudden sense of pain coming from it's torso, Kivo jumped back and began converting his rifle back into its standard mode.

"Ayana, jam your Pipeblade in it's wound so it stays open!" Kivo ordered, the yellow ranger quickly nodded and thrust her weapon into the wound before prying it open, giving them a direct attack point. "Alright, nice going." The Cog ranger enthused as Ayana joined him and drew her steam blaster.

"Not bad, now we better finish this Toad and put him in a hole." Ayana asserted as they both readied their weapons to end Toadshot.

"Huh, almost forgot." Kivo said as he remembered a key weapon in his arsenal. Removing his belt buckle, causing a mechanical voice to activate.

"Cog mine armed!" the synthetic voice confirmed as Kivo lobbed it into Toadshot's chest cavity.

"High noon blast!" Kivo called, the bell on the clocktower ringing out after one final wind up of his rifle before firing into Toadshot, immediately followed by shots from Ayana's steam blaster.

As Toadshot went up in a fiery explosion, the two rangers turned around with Kivo also shouldering his weapon.

As the flames died down, dark spores from the remains of Toadshot rose to the sky and clustered together, reanimating the Terrasoid into a giant. Now facing another giant foe the two rangers looked at each other.

"The others are still out for now. Guess it's just us two." Kivo said, observing that his teammates were still trapped by the Gunk that didn't seem to dispel when he was destroyed.

"I've got an idea to give your megazord a bit more firepower, but I don't know if it's gonna work." Ayana informed the Cog ranger, who gave out a big sigh.

"So your plan is to hope for the best? If something goes horribly wrong, I'm pinning all the blame on you." Kivo said as he readied himself to call on his Megazord.

Though he couldn't see it, Ayana was smirking at him under her helmet. Though she'd be reluctant to admit it, she did seem to enjoy fighting alongside Kivo, at least in this fight anyway. "Alright, time to call my rail rider."

Soon enough the yellow bus rider made it's way over the warehouse and Ayana leapt into the zord as it made it's way around the city. "Yellow bus rider engaged!" She called as she made a pass around Toadshot.

"Watchtower Megazord Engage!" Kvio called out as he gave the gear shaped wheel on his morpher a spin, awakening Vicdon's Clocktower that then formed into the Cog ranger's Megazord.

From her small cockpit, the yellow ranger began aimlessly pushing buttons around the control panel. "Alright, I'm gonna try coupling my zord into your Megazord. I've only done this once with TJ's zord so bear with me."

Kvio grunted as from his cockpit he pushed back against Toadshot, with his Megazord following his movements. "Easy for you to say."

Ayana noticed a familiar button. "Hey it's this one!" She cheered as she pressed down on it as her bus rider split in two and attached to the knuckles of the Watchtower Megazord that then put aside its current weapon.

As this was done Ayana was transported to the cockpit of the Megazord. "Alright, Watchtower Megazord. Steam powered knuckle dusters. Let's do this!" She cheered once more as she readied herself go give Toadshot a taste of the two ranger's combined power.

"Knuckle dusters, really?" Kivo remarked, questioning her choice in name for the attachment.

"Give me a break, I'm not the one who usually comes up with names." She groaned, getting a shrug from the Cog ranger as they struck Toadshot with a heavy handed punch.

Before Toadshot could react another heavy hitting punch struck his face, followed by another, and another and another.

"Alright. Let's lay the beatdown on this slime bag!" Ayana exclaimed with questionable enthusiasm as they two rangers let out a flurry of punches which the Megazord followed, it's hands becoming a blur as it tore through Toadshot before he exploded for the final time today.

Lowering the Megazord's arms, the two gave sighs of relief that it was over for the time being. Looking over, the two rangers gave each other firm nods. Even though they started the fight on the opposite sides, they had both chosen to fight on the same side and were now allies. A lesson they would keep with them as this fight continued.

|Steam Force|

 **And that was chapter 15 everyone, hoped you all liked it. It feels good to get back to doing some more Steam force and having these two characters work over their differences. So Ayana finally made her peace with having Kivo on the team, which is an important step into bringing the team together and I really enjoyed doing this chapter because it really stood out for meaning something in my eyes and something I want to keep doing in later chapters. If you're wondering why Toadshot was gathering people in this chapter, stay tuned for next chapter where that gets revealed.**

 **Now there have been some issues that have affected my updating in the past week or so, but things should be on track more now and the next week is one where I don't have any college work to do, so I might be able to get some more things out then There's only two more chapters that focus on Kivo and his relationships with the other rangers, it's been a long arc overall but I've got something special planned for when it's over. Other than that, I'm gonna be writing some more Primal Protectors soon, so look forward to that if you're a fan and until whatever I write next everyone.**

 **Next Chapter: Teamwork**

 **Synopsis: The Terrasoids are at it again, kidnapping more people than before. Following a Terrasoid Champion back to their holdout, they learn a shocking truth about the Terrasoids and what this could mean for everyone in Vicdon and perhaps even beyond. Can the rangers stop their enemy's plans? Find out next time on Power Rangers: Steam Force.**


	19. Teamwork

Power Rangers: Steam Force

Ch16: Teamwork

Ayana Towers strolled down the busy streets of Vicdon in the middle of morning rush hour. As she walked along the street, she thought back to the previous battle against Toadshot and how she and Kivo had finally overcome their issues to defeat the Terrasoid. It had been tough allying with a former foe, but now she had gotten past her stubbornness, she understood that Kivo wasn't any different from the others.

As she neared an apartment building just ahead, she noticed Mia leaving from it, a sight which had piqued the curiosity of the yellow ranger as she wandered over to her comrade in black.

"Hey, Mia!" She casually called over, startling her teammate. "Surprised to see you here." She added, stopping just before the other ranger.

"Oh, hey Ayana. Sorry I was a little jumpy, I'm just surprised that you're here." Mia responded as she turned to face the yellow ranger.

"I guess I could say the same, any reason you're visiting that building? You don't talk that much, so I can never really tell what's going on with you when you wander off." Ayana asked, scratching the back of her head as she did so.

Mia glanced away for a moment as she spoke. "I'm just tryna find someone, that's all. It's nothing important." She said in an unoptimistic tone.

"You're not looking for Waldo are you? I haven't found him yet either." Ayana casually joked in an effort to cheer the black ranger up.

"It doesn't matter, I didn't find them. You heading back to the station?" Mia asked, quickly diverting the subject away from her.

"Yeah, I'm just headed back from seeing my family, they've been doing a lot better since Lohan's been helping them out. The rich families in this city might not give a crap about any of us poor people, but at least he does. It's a shame he can only do so much about it." She explained as they strolled along the sidewalk.

"I'll head along with you then. What's your family like then, I heard you've been the one keeping them going for a while till we all became rangers." Mia asked, curious about the yellow ranger's life as they headed toward their base of operations.

"If you really wanna know, I'll tell you. I never knew who my father was, my mom never said anything when I asked her about him. She took care of me and my six other siblings for a while till she got sick and couldn't work, she's still trying her best to parent everyone though. My older brother's nearly recovered from his injury now though, he and my younger siblings are happy now he's getting better and can be a real brother again. The youngest just enjoy being kids I guess, though they can be a real handful." She casually explained to Mia as they turned the street corner.

"They kinda sound like my younger brother." She muttered under her breath with a small smile for a moment.

Ayana didn't hear exactly what was said and was about to ask her comrade when a strange figure seemed to leap down from a large building and land softly on the ground, only a few meters ahead of the two rangers. Though it was obscured by the citizens it had landed between, this was without a doubt the latest Terrasoid Champion sent by the Villainous Queen to go up against the Steam Force rangers. It looked to be a large bipedal grasshopper, twitching it's head and scanning the humans for a moment.

As the citizens began to react, attempting to flee, the new Terrasoid snatched two civilians back with it's long arms, pulling them in close before leaping up high. Its legs extending as far as they would go to perform what would be an impressive feat, if not for the malicious intent of the creature. The latest champion had done all of this in a matter of mere seconds, executing its goal so quickly that the two rangers could only get a look at the Terrasoid before it had fled the scene. The two looked at each other, they were unsettled by the speed of the Terrasoid, and what it could possible be planning for the captured civilians.

"We've gotta go tell the others. Who knows what that thing might be doing." Ayana said hastily to Mia as they began to head as quickly as they could to the Operations Station. Whatever this new Terrasoid plot was, it was obvious that it had to be stopped before any other civilians were in the crosshairs of their latest foe.

[Steam Force]

Within the Operations Station, the other rangers were going about their daily activities. TJ and Lucas manned their seats on the baggy couch as they versed each other on a video game, by the look on their faces, the former was currently winning their friendly competition. As for Alex and Kivo, the two were sat at the other end of the large seat, working on the latter's Cog rifle. It appeared that in the prior battle with Toadshot, at some point in the battle, some of the gunk made by the creature had gotten into the weapon and hadn't dissipated after the Terrasoid's defeat. While practicing with his weapon a short while ago, the weapon had jammed due to the remaining gunk. Now Alex worked over it as her teammate watched over her shoulder, waiting until his weapon was back to working condition.

Tightening a few of the screws with her trusty screwdriver, Alex wiped her brow, having finished clearing the rifle of the Gunk. "Looks like your rifle's in good condition now. Next time you're gonna spill giant frog guts everywhere with that thing though, watch what you're doing." She joked playfully, handing it over to Kivo.

The Cog ranger gave a short laugh as he took his weapon back. "I'll keep it in mind, but was it really necessary to take it completely apart just to clean it?"

Alex glanced away for a moment. "Uh-Yeah… Definitely needed to do that… It isn't like I just did that because I like to take things apart and put them back together or anything…" She said, trying to pass it off as a joke with an unconvincing laugh.

"You really need to work on your lying you know. It's a bit too obvious." Kivo remarked, stifling a laugh as he did so.

As the four went about their business, they were quickly interrupted by the heavy sound of footsteps as a group of soldiers sprinted into the building, before lining either side of the entrance. Followed by two guards, a man in his with slicked back blonde hair entered the Operations Station. His clothes looked to be made of fine material and designed for a person of high stature.

As he halted in the control room of the base, General Lohan emerged from his office and greeted the man. As the new arrival strolled around the station, taking in every in of what it had to offer, the General advanced down the ramp and toward the rangers, who had now caught sight of what was happening.

"Rangers, I need the four of you to come with me, there's a very important person I'd like you all to meet." Lohan informed them all, the four gave nods as they rose from their seats.

Though they were uncertain as to the purpose of this visit from this important individual, they knew it was serious if he had that much security with him. Heading into the control room, the four came face to face with the man. He had an odd air of superiority about him as he silently scrutinized the Operations Station.

"Rangers. This is the most important man in Vicdon, the Governor. He's in charge of the city and chose his title to reflect the importance of his role. He's here today because he wants to review the ranger program. I hope you'll do your best to impress him." The General explained to them.

The Governor paced back and forth as he observed the four rangers currently present. "This base of yours is rather run down, it's as if peasants live here. Though judging by some of the residents and their backgrounds, I'm not surprised by this." He told them in an almost mocking manner, likely referring to Ayana. "I've come here today to see if the ranger program is worth keeping open. I will admit that the work done here has stopped the vile creatures from taking over my city for now, but the damage done, civilians injured or worse and the recent disappearances of these people puts into question whether you can do the jobs you've been tasked with, or if a more militaristic approach is best. That would of course mean disbanding your misfit team."

Kivo clenched his fist, though he wasn't completely angry with the city official, he was still frustrated with the notion of disbanding the team, on top of that he wasn't impressed with the slandering of some of his teammates. "Listen here. As rangers, we do good work. Every so often we might fight amongst ourselves or someone might get caught in the crossfire, but we're equipped to best help the city against the Terrasoids, and we do our best to save whoever we can. People do get injured and things do get destroyed and all we can do is learn from that, but we're still the best choice to protect the city, regardless of all the bad stuff."

"Says someone who was with the enemy and betrayed them. How long till you betray the human race? I don't like anyone who shifts their allegiances, even if they're on my side, once a traitor always a traitor. People like you are what makes me sick, along with the gutter trash that plague this city." The Governor sneered, getting the Cog ranger angrier along with frustrating the other rangers with his slander.

Before the tension could rise any further, Ayana and Mia rushed into the Operations station, catching their breath for a few moments upon stopping. The ranger in yellow had look of urgency in her face as she and Mia headed toward the others. Though they were intrigued by the presence of the soldiers and the Governor, there were more urgent matters to attend to.

"We've got a problem, there's a new Terrasoid going around the city, it's a large Grasshopper that's leaping around the city and snatching up the city. We've gotta go now, otherwise whatever it's planning might work." Ayana explained to the other four.

Though Kivo wanted to respond back to the harsh word of the Governor, now wasn't the time to bicker with a politician. Alex quickly took charge of the situation, stepping up to formulate a plan to defeat the latest monster. "Alright, we need to find this thing and quickly. If it is snatching up civilians, then we should spread out and wait for it to come after someone. When it does we'll chase it down and find where it's been hiding."

Without a moment to spare, the six sprinted out of the building to deal with this latest threat, brushing aside the problematic meeting with the Governor for the time being. As TJ ran, he was thinking over what Ayana had said about the Terrasoid champion and what it had been doing. Just like Toadshot, this creature was also kidnapping civilians. Thinking about what purpose they intended for the captives made the blue ranger's stomach drop and he prayed that they would get there in time before this latest plan could bear fruit.

[Steam Force]

Only a few minutes ago had the Champion taken a small group of civilians from the streets. TJ was there to witness the kidnapping and had managed to chase to foe to it's hideout. The other rangers soon converged on the location, recognising it to be the same warehouse as the one Toadshot had used to house his captives.

The rangers gave each other concerned looks as they neared the doors of the abandoned warehouse. It was strange that they had continued their plans to take captives, even stranger still to see that they had stayed in the same location. Whatever sinister plot the rangers had in store, the rangers knew they had to stop it, and fast.

Heading into the the building, the rangers immediately spotted the captive civilians. A squadron of drones kept them from escaping. Further into the building, the Terrasoid Champion stood by some form of organic pod that had fused into the floor. It had the same warped architecture of the Hive and glowed a sinister red as the Champion twitched watching it. It watched for a few moments before turning it's head towards the captive civilians.

"Watch little humans, it's about to break open, and then you'll see what happened to the other little human I sent in there. Don't worry though, because Terrorhopper's going to make sure the same happens to you too!" The Champion exclaimed while announcing its name to instill some fear into his potential victims.

Turning back around, Terrorhopper watched with joy as the pod cracked open and a large Terrasoid bearing resemblance to bipedal scarab beetle emerged and looked around the area. From it's back spread spread insect wings as it's head turned to a large busted open window. "Must… Go… To… The… Hive…" The newly emerged Terrasoid said slowly as it began to get used to speaking. Flying out of the window with tremendous speed, the civilians looked on in horror as Terrorhopper leapt over to them.

"It's hard to believe that was once a human wasn't it? Just another captive until he hatched from the cocoon. Who's gonna be next to go inside the pod? As soon as you do, the process will begin and you'll become one of us! Stronger and better than ever!" The Champion cheered with some sadistic enjoyment of the job it was preforming.

From where they were hiding to watch the dark plan take place, the rangers all wore concerned looks. Somehow, the Terrasoids had managed to find a way to transform ordinary humans into soldiers for their army. No matter what, their goal was to destroy that pod and save the civilians before any more would be turned.

Kivo hung his head low, his fists clenched. "Not again… They tried to make me one of them when I started to doubt them… But this is too far! Going and taking innocents from the streets and transforming them into warriors for their conquest, I can't let them do that." He said aloud, catching the attention of both the rangers and the Terrasoids.

It surprised the rangers, but it made them realise something about Kivo. He'd never asked to be part of this fight, from the moment he was brought into the battle, he'd known nothing but the Terrasoid way of life and as soon as he found his humanity, they tried to take it away from him, just like what they were doing to these civilians now.

Running out into the open, Kivo and the other five rangers brandished their morphers. "Gear Shift!" "Full Steam Ahead!" They called out as they transforming in a cloud of steam.

"Alright Kivo, we'll take care of those drones and get the civilians to safety. It looks like this one's personal, so handle that Terrasoid however you want." Alex to the Cog ranger as she and the others ran over to fight the drones.

"I appreciate it." Kivo responded as he drew his rifle and aimed at Terrorhopper, who moved to protect the pod from harm.

"Hit me with your best shot ranger!" Terrorhopper taunted as Kivo took aim at it's head.

As Kivo fired off a shot, the Terrasoid Champion leapt into the air dodging it with it's superior stamina. Terrorhopper laughed mockingly at the Cog ranger as he landed. Kivo gritted his teeth behind his helmet as he aimed slightly higher in preparation for next time. Taking a breath in, he fired off his next shot, taking the bait, Terrorhopper leapt into the air, because of the angle it was fired from, the shot blasted the left knee of the Terrasoid Champion, who was knocked down to the ground on impact with the bolt of energy.

"Lucky shot ranger, but I've still got one good leg and I won't fall for that next time." Terrorhopper groaned as it tried to stand up.

"There won't be a next time." The Cog ranger commented as he squeezed the trigger of his rifle, wasting no time at all.

The blast whizzed through the air, hitting and disabling Terrorhopper's other leg, hitting the foe before it could react. The Champion cried out in agony as Kivo neared, winding up his rifle as he did so. He first fired off a powered shot from his rifle hitting the Terrasoid head on before continuing to wind up his rifle.

"That one's to teach you monsters a lesson. Leave these people alone." He said as he finished charging up his rifle.

As Terrorhopper struggled to move, groaning in agony, Kivo took aim at the Terrasoid pod. Snapping the trigger back quickly, the supercharged shot collided with the pod, blasting it apart upon impact.

"No! You fool what have you done!?" Terrorhopper exclaimed in surprise, having failed his Queen in his mission.

"That one's for the people you've turned and were trying to turn. If any of you Terrasoids try it again, you're gonna be dealing with an angry Kivo." He told the wounded Terrasoid flailing on the ground.

Turning back towards Terrorhopper, the Cog ranger removed his buckle, arming the mine before dropping it on the torso of his helpless foe. Moving back some distance before supercharging his Cog rifle once more.

"And this one's for me. High noon blast!" Kivo called out as the bell on the clocktower rang out. Kivo squeezed the trigger back and watched at the shot struck the mine, completely obliterating both Terrorhopper and the spores that would have created a giant Terrasoid upon its destruction.

As the fires from the destructive blast died down, Kivo powered down. After a few moments he was joined by the other rangers, who had reverted to their civilian forms.

"Looks like you made short work of the Terrasoid here. You alright?" Lucas asked as Kivo turned to face the other rangers.

"It's over now, Terrorhopper's gone and so it that pod." He told them. Even though it was over, he didn't seem relieved. What they had witness definitely struck him deeply, that combined with what the Governor had said put Kivo into a conflicted position.

"Good job today Kivo, no matter what any stuffy bureaucrat says, you're one of the good guys. You're the one that saved those people after all, no one else." Alex explained to him with a small congratulatory smile.

"Thanks, it means a lot, knowing that I've actually saved people today." He replied, appreciating the sentiment.

Before anyone else could get a word in, the yellow ranger let out a loud laugh. "Wait that guy in the Station was a politician and he got under you skin? You've gotta learn Kivo, never take their word for it, they always lie and don't have the guts to face the consequences when it comes back to bite them." Though it was a rather abrupt comment, the others couldn't help but laugh, from what they knew, it was likely the truth.

[Steam Force]

Back inside the Operations Station, Lohan had just received word from Alex that the threat had been neutralized and the civilians were safe. He was conversing with the Governor over his decision on the ranger program and whether or not it would continue.

"You heard what Alex said, they removed the Terrasoid threat and saved a group of civilians from whatever our enemies were planning. Even if the rest of our military force was involved and the rangers were disbanded, they couldn't do this. Though they might have problems with each other from time to time, the rangers always pull out a victory in the end, that's what matters and I wouldn't have it any other way." Lohan explained to the Governor, putting his support firmly behind his team.

"I might have misjudged their ability to get the job done earlier, but it seems for the time being, they're capable enough to continue fighting against the Terrasoids. Just know though, General, if anything does happen, the consequences will be on you." He threatened as he and his guards headed to leave.

"It's not the first time I've been threatened like that you know, it won't be the last time either. You know, you act just like your father did, only he cared for the people under him." Lohan remarked as the Governor left, a slight scowl on his face.

Though the day was saved, a new threat had revealed itself in the form of the Terrasoid plot to transform humans into Terrasoids. While Kivo had destroyed the pod, it wouldn't surprise them if Queen Nyllia would continue this plot. For now however, the rangers could rest, knowing that Vicdon was once again safe from the Terrasoids.

|Steam Force|

 **That's chapter 16 done and out of the way. I hope you all enjoyed the return to Steam Force, sorry it's been a while. This was supposed to come out at the back end of last week, but life really likes to mess around when I'm trying to write. So here we saw a side to Kivo that hasn't been touched upon entirely. He was thrust into this conflict and he was more of a victim than the rangers thought till they saw what was happening with the Terrasoid plot. The plot itself is something that's more central to the story than most things, to say the least, so keep that in mind going forward. The Governor is someone I want to portray as the stereotypical politician and has a personality which is essentially all of the traits that Ayana hates combined, which will make some interesting dynamics in future chapters. It also appears as if Lohan doesn't like him too, though I guess you could sum that up to him being a military man and the Governor being a politician.**

 **Anyway, now I've essentially got academic hell week out of the way and I've got a week or so off, I can purely focus on writing for a bit, so get ready for what's likely gonna be some binge updating. Until then everyone.**

 **Next Chapter: Rage**

 **Synopsis: A new Terrasoid enters Vicdon to cause havoc, firing off darts holding a toxin in them which sends whoever is injected with the toxin into an enraged state. Can the rangers stop this monster before it gets out of hand or will one of the rangers get injected with the toxin, bringing back unpleasant experiences from the recent past? Find out next time on Power Rangers: Steam Force.**


	20. Rage

Power Rangers: Steam Force

Ch17: Rage

While white clouds floated above, passing over the sun briefly as they did so, TJ, lucas and Kivo walked through the narrow streets of the market district. They appeared to be holding bags full of daily commodities as they walked on. Though Kivo held another paper bag which appeared to be full of candy and chocolate.

"Hey Kivo, you sure you should've bought that much? You might end up having a sugar rush if you eat all that at once." Lucas asked, eying the overflowing bag. "We could help if you want." He suggested with a grin.

"I've not had a sugar rush before though, I want to experience it myself before I offer anyone any. Besides, didn't you say that I should keep stuff like that to myself when we were in the store?" He responded, repeating the green ranger's words, to which he gave a grumble.

"Foiled by my own words." Lucas mumbled as they turned into one of the wider streets.

From where he walked beside them, TJ gave a small laugh. "Never say something that can backfire on you Lucas. I don't think he'll have any for long though, if he takes his eyes off it for a second, I think one of the girls might snatch it, then there'd be nothing left."

"Girls are pretty scary when it comes to eating sweet things, some of them are just plain scary when it comes to eating anything." Lucas agreed.

"Alright then, I'll make it my mission to not let my eyes off of this bag and make sure no one eats from it but me!" Kivo decided spontaneously.

As he made that statement, they emerged from the street into a market plaza, which was lined with multiple stores stacked with goods such as fresh produce and clothing. As they looked ahead, they saw that some of the stalls had been toppled and the people within the area appeared to be fighting with each other, some having beaten others into the ground and were still relentless with their attacks.

Walking further in, the three male rangers looked around to see the carnage unfolding around them. "What the hell's going on?" TJ asked as the civilians continued to fight.

"Domestic dispute maybe, I guess we should just leave this to the cops." Lucas suggested, carefree of the fight going on around them.

"I don't think that's gonna work, looks like they're in the brawl too." Kivo pointed out as the other two rangers looked to see multiple security officers actively participating in the brawl.

"I don't like this, something's up." TJ replied cautiously as his eyes darted, looking for a possible cause to the anarchy.

As he searched, a high pitched cackle erupted from an alleyway. The three rangers quickly turned their attention toward the noise, raising their guards as they did so. Slithering out of the alley appeared to be some form of humanoid reptile, the rangers quickly determined that it was a Terrasoid Champion and that it was the cause of the ongoing fighting. It's lower body was serpent-like while it's upper body was similar to that of a woman's, however, it's entire body was covered in scales, some appearing thicker than others. Sharp claws extended from its fingertips and sharp glistening fangs were in place of teeth. The serpent-like creature eyed them like prey as she slithered nearer.

Each of the rangers tensed up as they prepared to face up against the villain. "Hey snake lady! I bet you're the one causing all those people to go berserk, aren't you?" TJ called out as the Terrasoid let out another cackle.

"My name is Lamoria and you could say that I have a pretty venomous touch that sends everyone into a frenzy, but that's not the only thing I can use." Lamoria introduced as her predatory grin returned.

In an instant, the Terrasoid reached to her side and placed her claws around one of her thicker scales before tearing it painlessly from her body, much to the ranger's surprise. Having completely removed the scale, it now resting in her hand, the monster gave a laugh.

"Fortunately my scales grow back, otherwise I wouldn't be able to do this regularly." Lamoria laughed as she put the removed scale near her fangs before spitting venom onto it, covering it in venom. As she did so, the place where her scale had once sat appeared to quickly grow, a freshly formed hard scale taking the place of the last one.

"I'm so fortunate that Queen Nyllia made me this way, being able to use my own scales like this, I can inject my venom from far away too. It's so exciting, watching you humans tear each other apart!" Lamoria cackled as she held the scale as if she were to use it as a projectile.

"Look out!" TJ warned as the Terrasoid Champion threw the envenomed scale toward the three.

While the blue and green rangers dove to the ground, narrowly avoiding the projectile weapon, Kivo hadn't fully processed the events unfolding before him yet. The poisoned scale striking into the hand that held his bag, Kivo recoiled and seethed from the pain caused by it piercing his skin. While he did so, the poison appeared to crawl up through his arm further into his body.

The Cog ranger's features tensed and he quickly dropped the bag he was holding and readied his morpher. "Now I'm mad, ready guys?" He asked his teammates as they brandished their own morphers and gave a nod.

"Full Steam Ahead!" "Gear Shift!" The three called out morphing under a short lived cloud of steam and an overlay of gears before racing out brandishing their ranged weapons.

Emerging in a blaze of weapon fire, the three believed they had caught Lamoria off guard. While TJ and Lucas fired off shots from their Steam Blasters, they quickly came to the realisation that with the serpentine body of the latest Champion, it danced easily around the fire from their weapons.

"Damn, we need a new plan." Lucas called over to the blue ranger who reached for his morpher.

"You're right. Think you could lay down some cover for us Kivo?" Though he received no answer. "Kivo?" TJ asked once again but to no avail.

The green ranger nodded his head over to where Lamoria had been stood dodging their attacks, Kivo now fought with his Cog rifle converted to blade mode, swinging viciously at the serpent-like Terrasoid.

"Looks like he beat us to it, better get in there too." Lucas commented as he too reached to his morpher.

1-0-1 … Shipping … Pipeblade … Arriving

The two steam rangers quickly drew their weapons, charging the Terrasoid Champion to back up their comrade who seemed to fight more sluggishly now but with heavier swings. As the three fought off Lamoria, several blaster shots came from behind, hitting and scorching the foe's scales who let out a pained cry.

"Meddling rangers! I'll be back to finish you off!" The Champion exclaimed before whipping the three rangers in the face with its tail, stunning them for a moment before slithering away from the battle.

After regaining his bearings, TJ turned around and gave a sigh of relief upon seeing their female companions, morphed and wielding their Steam Blasters. "Man, are we lucky you guys showed up, didn't know how much longer we'd have to hold out."

"I suppose that means you guys are in our debt then, think you could take over cleaning duty from us for the week?" Alex jested as they powered down, all but Kivo that is.

Noticing that he hadn't yet, the yellow ranger strolled over and spoke up. "Hey Kivo, the Terrasoid's gone right? You don't need to stay morphed." She said, placing a hand on his shoulder.

Upon her making contact, the Cog ranger dropped his rifle and turned his head slightly before grasping Ayana's hand tightly and wrapping his other hand around her arm, proceeding to viciously throw her over his shoulder without provocation and let out a snarl. For a moment it appeared as if he was going to continue his spontaneous assault but shook his head and let out an enraged and primal sounding roar as he quickly fled the area.

Being helped up by Lucas, she gave a pained groan, rolling her shoulder that had been injured when Kivo attacked her. "What the hell was that, first he throws me over his shoulder then he runs off!" She blared, angry that he had done that so abruptly.

"It's like what happened with everyone in that market area." TJ noted as he looked over to what had been the sight of the domestic fight between both civilians and security officers. Reinforcements had arrived in bulk and had now detained those fighting, including some of their own. "Come to think of it, that poisoned scale the Terrasoid threw stabbed Kivo in the hand, that's when he started to act a little funny and said he was angry, maybe it's that venom of hers that sent him and the others into a frenzy." The blue ranger deduced.

"So it's not Kivo's fault right?" Mia asked, still unsure of what to make of the situation.

After a long moment of silence between the five, uncertain of how to answer that question given his previous actions and the fact they couldn't be certain it was caused by Lamoria, Alex spoke up. "You're right, it can't be Kivo's fault he attacked Ayana like that. Right now though he's a threat to everyone, including us. We need to find a way to fix this before he does any more damage." She decided before noticing the discarded scale that had poisoned their companion on the ground by Kivo's bag of candy on the floor. Kneeling down beside the improvised weapon, she examined it for a moment. "I think we've found what we need. Lucas, can you empty that bag and hand it me? We need to get this thing back to the Station."

Lucas gave a groan and emptied the contents onto the floor before handing her the bag. "Kivo's gonna kill me for this." He moped at the loss of the sweets and what future repercussions it might have for the green ranger.

"He'll probably try and kill you plus the rest of us if we don't try something, this way at least the rest of us won't be on his hit list when it's all over." Ayana commented, not helping the feeling in Lucas' stomach.

"So I'm dead either way, oh great…" Lucas grimaced, hoping that Kivo wouldn't overreact when he found out they had to sacrifice his sugary goods to save him.

[Steam Force]

Racing back to the Operations Station, the rangers quickly found General Lohan and his staff working hastily throughout the control room, coordinating security teams to quell the numerous brawls erupting throughout the city. Though there seemed to be no end as more and more fights began each minute.

The General gave a relieved sigh upon seeing the team. "I'm glad to see you're okay rangers, the city's on the verge of going into an all out riot. I've got my teams working to detain the fighters but they're spread thin. It wasn't provoked by anything though, people throughout the districts just started beating each other savagely, we need to stop this before it gets out of hand." He explained to them as Alex held the bag containing the scale from the Terrasoid Champion.

"We think we know why, there's another snake-like Terrasoid on the loose, TJ said that it coated it's scale in venom and threw it at him, Lucas and Kivo. It got stuck in Kivo's hand and after we chased it off, he ended up attacking Ayana, just like all those civilians are acting right now. We've got the scale right here, we were hoping you'd be able to do something with it." She explained the situation to him.

Lohan gestured to one of his staff to walk over, ordering him to take the bag from the red ranger and take it away for research. "Good to know it is a Terrasoid doing this. We can work on a way to counteract the effects of the venom thanks to you bringing us a sample of it. For now, I need you all out there, find that Terrasoid and stop it before it can do any further damage."

"What about if we run into Kivo though? Chances are he'll attack us like he did before he ran off." Lucas asked, hoping the General could come up with an effective solution to the temporary problem until they could fix it.

"He's still your teammate, so it'll be hard to fight him. Hold him off for as long as you can, if we're lucky it won't be long until we can fix what that Terrasoid did. Your priority is stopping that Terrasoid though, if the city goes into a full scale riot, the consequences will be on our heads. Good luck rangers, we're counting on you to save the city from itself today. Now get out there and show that Terrasoid who they're dealing with.

[Steam Force]

Advancing with haste through the city, the rangers soon happened upon Lamoria, who unfortunately for the rangers, was engaged in battle with the feral Cog ranger. The Terrasoid Champion had also called in reinforcements as a large group of drones fought by its side and appeared to be slowly wearing down the relentlessly fighting ranger.

"Damn, I was hoping we wouldn't have to fight them both at once." Alex muttered under her breath.

"How are we gonna hold them both off at once, he's stronger that the rest of us so we're in trouble if we can't do this right." The black ranger pointed out as they tried to devise a plan of attack.

"Just leave Kivo to us." TJ volunteered as he slung his arm around the green ranger's shoulders, volunteering him too.

"Wait, I didn't agree to this!" Lucas protested, to no avail.

"We were responsible for him today remember? It might've only been watching him while we were out shopping to start with but we should've done a better job protecting him from being poisoned. It's on us to make up for only watching out for ourselves in that fight." TJ reminded him of their earlier mistake, finally getting the ranger to agree.

"Fine, let's go and knock some sense into him then." Lucas nodded as the rangers stood in a line.

"Alright, you guys keep Kivo away while we deal with Lamoria. Hopefully we won't have to hold out for too long though. Everyone ready?" Alex asked as they revealed their morphers and held their arms out in front of them.

"Full Steam Ahead!" The five rangers called out in unison as a thick cloud of white steam enshrouded them for a few moments before dispersing as the team charged the enemy.

1-0-1 … Shipping … Pipeblade … Arriving

Each of the rangers called forth their melee weapons as they made contact with their foes before dividing amongst the fighting. While Ayana, Mia and Alex focused on cutting through the drone squadron, Lucas and TJ pushed their way through to Kivo.

Swinging and hitting the Cog ranger in the head with his Pipeblade, the green ranger quickly got the attention of his enraged teammate "Hey Kivo, over here!" He called out as he and TJ led the swinging ranger away from the bulk of the battle.

With each swing, the two rangers managed to block the heavy attacks of the Cog ranger, but each one wore their resistance to his attacks and the rangers knew they couldn't hold out much longer. While they fought a losing battle against the enraged ferocity of their teammate, the other rangers had cut down the majority of the drones.

Kicking a drone down and quickly dispatching it, the yellow ranger turned to her nearby teammates. "How much longer is Lohan gonna take? I don't think they can hold TJ off forever.

Alex glanced at the two and Kivo landed a punch to the blue ranger's gut, sending him staggering backwards as Kivo attempted to press his brutish attack, stopped in his tracks just before he could by the green ranger who gave a nod to TJ. Taking her gaze back to the fight in progress, she quickly slashed through the last drone standing as the three girls turned to face Lamoria who gave a cackle.

"So you've beaten all of my soldiers have you? It'll not be enough to stop me though! Come at me rangers, I'll poison you just like I did to the traitor!" She threatened as the rangers braced themselves.

As they charged, Alex stopped abruptly when the communicator in her helmet activated and the familiar voice of General Lohan spoke to her, stopping the red ranger in her tracks. "Alex, good news, we have a solution to the venom problem. We discovered that the venom from the Terrasoid is similar to Adder venom so we think that Antivenom used to treat Adder bites should work to counter the venom in Kivo and the other victims. Key in ninety four on your morpher and you'll be sent a syringe gun, but you need to get up close to Kivo to administer it. Hopefully this should solve the problem, good luck Alex." Lohan explained to her as Alex changed direction, leaving Lamoria to the yellow and black rangers.

0-9-4 … Shipping … Syringe Gun … Arriving

A small gun shaped syringe containing the Antivenom that would likely cure the Cog ranger materialised in her hand as she sprinted toward the fight between Kivo, TJ and Lucas. "TJ, Lucas! I need you to hold him still for a second! I've got something that should cure him!" She explained, calling over to the two struggling rangers.

"Should? If this doesn't work I'm blaming you Alex." Lucas decided, hesitating for a moment before he and TJ charged Kivo, holding him still with all their strength as the red ranger sprinted over to the three.

Jamming the device against the ranger wrestling for freedom she took a breath in. "Here goes nothing." She said, hoping that Lohan's theory was right before pulling the trigger.

Once the Antivenom had left its capsule and entered Kivo's body, the Cog ranger threw the green and blue rangers off of him, letting out a growl as he hit Alex in the ribs, knocking her back. From his reaction, the rangers thought that the Antivenom hadn't worked and braced themselves for the worst. Then, the ranger seemed to calm, his angry panting becoming quieter and softer until he calmed down completely.

"Huh, when did I get here? Why are you guys on the floor?" He asked as the three pulled themselves to their feet relieved to see that the plan had worked.

"Lamoria poisoned you with that scale she threw, we're guessing she did the same thing to all those civilians too. You attacked Ayana and you pretty much tried to kill me and Lucas just now. We're glad you're back to normal though." TJ explained to the Cog ranger as they turned their attention to Lamoria.

Though Mia and Ayana were holding their own against the Terrasoid Champion, without the aid of the rest of their team, they wouldn't last much longer. Kivo quickly summoned his Cog rifle, signalling the others to stay as he walked toward Lamoria, winding it up to supercharge it as he did.

Coming to a halt beside his two teammates, he aimed toward the underbelly of the Terrasoid. "Lamoria, it's time you take a dirt nap. You might've gotten away with poisoning me, but making me hurt my team, my friends because of that. It's unforgivable. High noon blast!" Kivo called out as he fired at the unarmored section of the Terrasoid's body with his supercharged rifle, the bell of the clocktower ringing as the blasts hit, destroying the Terrasoid in a fiery explosion.

As the fires died down however, the dark spores from the remains of the Terrasoid settled on the ground, erupting and reanimating Lamoria into a giant Terrasoid. Gathering around, the rangers looked up at the hungry looking creature.

"Do you want to handle this one too?" Ayana asked the Cog ranger who simply shook his head and rested his rifle on his shoulders.

"I think I've had enough of fighting for one day, this one's all yours." He added as the others formed up.

"Alright, time to call the rail riders!" Alex announced as the zords left their station, flying overhead as the rangers entered into their zords.

"Red express rider engaged!"

"Blue speed rider engaged!"

"Green tram rider engaged!"

"Yellow bus rider engaged!"

"Black passenger rider engaged!"

Though no one piloted the White mono rider, it still followed the other zords into their configuration line. "Coupling zords! Steam Titan Megazord engage!" Each of them announced as the zords combined into the Megazord, it's head emerging with its steampunk train conductor hat, it's eyes lighting up to signify the formation was completed. "Steam Titan Megazord ready!"

Through the Megazord's communicators came Kivo's voice as he watched from below. "Everyone, a snake's weak on it's underside, aim for Lamoria's stomach, that's how you'll get past those armoured scales." He helpfully informed the team as they nodded to each other before taking their individual controls.

"Thanks for the heads up Kivo." Alex responded as they prepared the Megazord to strike through the Terrasoid Champion and quickly end it. "Let's gut this snake!"

At her command, the Megazord charged forward increasing its speed until it lifted from the ground, rotating horizontally as it's speed increased even further before throwing its arms out in front of it. "Max Speed! Collision Strike!" The five announced as the Megazord connected it's fists with Lamoria's weak spot, tearing through the Terrasoid Champion who shrieked in pain as she exploded, the Steam Titan landing behind it as the rangers and Kivo cheered at the defeat of the latest villain that had almost been victorious against them.

"Hey guys, quick question." Kivo cut in on the communicator. "Do any of you know what happened to my bag, the one with all the candy and chocolate in?" He asked, Lucas' stomach dropping as soon as he heard the Cog ranger mention it.

Before anyone else could answer him truthfully however, TJ spoke up. "Sorry Kivo, but while you were all Hulked out, you stepped on it and ruined everything inside." The blue ranger lied, which caught the surprise of each of his teammates.

"I guess I'll just have to get some more then." Kivo replied with a passive tone as he powered down and appeared to walk in the immediate direction of the shop he had visited earlier in the day.

From within the cockpit of the Megazord, Lucas nudged his teammate in blue. "Hey, thanks for covering for me, I think he'd understand why we had to ditch his stash but I wasn't willing to risk it. I owe you,"

"You don't owe me a thing, you helped me back there with Kivo so it's only fair I return the favour. Besides, what're friends for?" TJ added, smiling sincerely under his helmet, not that anyone could see it.

With the threat of Lamoria over and the Terrasoids left to brood over their latest defeat, the rangers had been reminded today of how dangerous a fighter Kivo was, which made them all grateful that he was on their side now and that he's no longer the same person he was when they met him.

|Steam Force|

 **That's chapter 17 and yet again, I apologise for how long it's been since I've written a chapter of this. So this week is all about writing chapters for the series I've been neglecting, starting with this. After I've got a chapter out for each though, my prime focus is gonna be Mythos and getting that finally finished.**

 **So this concludes the whole Kivo redemption arc, finally, with a bit of a contrast bringing back his violent and ruthless self and then offering a contrast just to cement his position in the rangers. Now this arc is over, the next one will be introducing a new character. Before that I've got a little bridge chapter which will involve Kivo meeting a certain pilot for the first time, I wonder how that'll go. Thanks for reading and until next time.**

 **Next Chapter: Auxiliary Aid**

 **Synopsis: When a Terrasoid Champion attacks the city with an armoured exoskeleton that proves to be too thick for any of the ranger's weapons to penetrate, will the arrival of Welkin Stross add to their combined power enough to breach the defences of their foe or will they need something far stronger to claim victory? Find out next time on Power Rangers: Steam Force.**


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